By KUNA,
Gaza : Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz has said that he could agree to release “bloodstained” Palestinian prisoners in exchange for freeing captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Mofaz was speaking ahead of a meeting with Egyptian envoy Omar Suleiman, who arrived in Israel earlier Monday to prevail on Tel Aviv to accept a truce reached by Egypt with Palestinian factions, the Israel Radio said.
Israel stipulates progress in talks over Gilad Shalit, who has been in captivity for a couple of years, as a precondition for accepting a truce, it added.
Egypt has proposed that Israel open the Rafah crossing and, then, possibly other crossings and stop military operations in the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian factions stop firing mortar rockets at Israeli towns. But, such a truce does not include the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to visit Egypt this month to meet President Hosni Mubarak on the situation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli political sources were quoted as saying.
During his visit to Egypt, Olmert will brief Mubarak on Israel’s response to the Egyptian-facilitated ceasefire in the Strip, they said.
Separately, an Israeli official of prisoners and missing people has recently called for reopening negotiations with Hamas on the captured Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip, Yediot Ahronot reported.
In a strongly-worded message, he called on Olmert and Army Chief Ehud Barak to discuss the issue with Suleiman.
Meanwhile, scores of Jewish settlers have sealed off the southern entrance to Hebron City, south of the West Bank in protest against an Israeli decision to remove a military barrier, which was set up several years ago.
A spokesman for the Israeli army argued that the move followed the gesture by Israel to show goodwill towards the Palestinian side.
Israel recently decided to remove 50 roadblocks in the West Bank to facilitate the movement of Palestinians under pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But, it has ever since scrapped only one barrier between Ramallah and Jericho.
Israel has resumed fuel deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, two days after Gaza’s only power plant shut down because of fuel shortages.
An Israeli security official said the Nahal Oz terminal reopened for fuel deliveries on Monday morning. Israel further curbed fuel supplies to Gaza after militants attacked the terminal five weeks ago.