The spokesman of the Hamas-led government Ghazi Hamad revealed on Wednesday that Israel, in principle, has accepted a prisoners swap for an Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian militants late June.

Hamad, however, told reporters in Gaza that until now, "nothing has been reached yet on the specific numbers of Palestinian prisoners that would be freed from the Israeli jails, in case Israel and the Palestinians agree on the swap."

The spokesman also revealed that there were no direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over the prisoners' swap, adding that "there are third parties, mainly Egypt, which plays a very important role in ending the crisis."

On June 25, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, an armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), along with another two Palestinian groups, killed two Israeli soldiers and abducted 19- year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit during a cross-border attack.

The groups had demanded Israel release prisoners held in Israeli jails for an exchange of captive Shalit, but Israel has rejected the swap idea, insisting on the unconditional release of its soldiers.

But Hamad denied earlier reports that a deal had been reached to release only women and children from Israeli jails in exchange for the Israeli hostage, and that Israel had refused to release prisoners with life sentence terms.

"Even if we assume that there is an Israeli seriousness to release prisoners, so far the number and the proportion of prisoners have not been specified or defined either by the Palestinian or the Israeli side," added Hamad.

The spokesman continued, "Unfortunately, there have been so many analyses, predictions and interpretations concerning the whole issue, where several scenarios emerged on the surface. What I could say is that most of them are not accurate."

So far, there has been no comment from the Israeli side over the agreement of swapping prisoners.

Israel has launched a large-scale offensive into the Gaza Strip on June 28 in the wake of the capture of Israeli soldier, in which more than 160 Palestinians and some 500 others wounded.

Source: Xinhua