Netanyahu to relaunch efforts towards prisoner swap deal

[ 17/10/2010 - 04:54 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said continued action will be taken to release Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian resistance, through a swap deal with Hamas. Israeli Radio quoted Sunday Netanyahu as saying: “Israel will continue to work in different ways to guarantee the release of Shalit. There are major efforts being made in this regard, but the greater part of them will take place in a natural setting away from the media.” “The Shalit case’s return to headlines does not mean we were absent all along,” Netanyahu added. Renewed negotiations for the swap deal constitute one of the main channels Israel will use to release Shalit, who has been captured by resistance factions in the Gaza Strip since 2006. Netanyahu noted that intermittent contacts with Hamas since the end of last year have been relaunched during a visit by the German mediator to Gaza about two weeks ago. Hamas downplayed the visit saying it “did not bring anything new.”