Israel presents a list of would-be swapped Palestinian prisoners

Thursday September 25, 2008 14:52 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

An Israeli ministerial committee, studying the profile of Palestinian prisoners, set the list of would-be Palestinian prisoners, Israel will possibly set free within a prisoner swap deal with the Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners inside an Israeli jail

The committee handed over a list of 450 Palestinian prisoners to the outgoing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, for endorsement.

According to the Yediout Ahronot Israeli daily newspaper, the newly-prepared list includes half of the names , the ruling Hamas party in Gaza , which holds Shalit, had earlier presented to Egyptian mediators.

Yuval Disken, Israeli internal security chief, rejected the release of whom he called ' those with blood on their hands' , saying this would damage the security of Israel.

Over the past several months, Egyptian-mediated talks over a prisoner swap deal between Israel and the ruling Hamas, have been stalled due to Israel's intransigence to agree on a list presented by the Islamic group.

israel | miscellaneous | news report rami at imemc dot org