Hamas swap reps expected to consult with Mashaal before final OK

A Hamas delegation from both Gaza and Damascus is expected to be meeting Tuesday in Cairo with the German mediator on the terms of a swap involving the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas's exiled polititical chief Khaled Mashaal in Damascus is not part of the delegation, and it is believed that the members of the Hamas team might first go to the Syrian capital before an official decision is made whether to accept the deal.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said there is not yet any deal, and that he cannot say with certainty that there will be a deal. Once there would be one, said Netanyahu, there will be a public discussion and cabinet ministers will have the opportunity to voice their views.

But bereaved parents and the Almagor group of terror victims have petitioned the High Court against the swap that is apparently in the works. They want the court to order the State to immediately publish the names of the prisoners who would be released and to stop using censorship, so that the public can deliberate on the issue knowing all the information.

David Ze'ev spoke to Itzik Bam, an attorney for the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, and asked him whether he accepted the government's argument that censorship is necessary at such a sensitive stage.

Interviewed Tuesday morning on Army Radio, cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he believed a deal is very close. There will be a high price to pay, he said, but he predicted the government will approve it, adding that this deal will prove to all the mothers of Israel that we are not ready to abandon a single soldier.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday morning repeated that it's a military and moral imperative to bring Shalit back home.(21,24)