A deal to release captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit will likely be concluded next week, according to a Fox News report Friday, which quoted sources close to officials involved in the negotiations. The report added that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would travel to Germany next week. According to the report, a disagreement over deportation of Palestinian prisoners from east Jerusalem had become a major sticking point.
Israel is still waiting on a number of answers from Hamas, according to Egyptian sources quoted by Fox.
"What we are seeing now is the end game," an unnamed source was quoted as saying.
In another Friday report, Egyptian sources were quoted as saying that Israel had agreed to release 20 prisoners with long sentences that Hamas has demanded as part of any deal for Schalit.
The London-based Al-Hayat paper reported on that Israel continued to oppose the release of an additional 50 such prisoners.
Israel is also continuing to stand firm on its policy of not releasing prisoners who are either Arab Israelis or Arab residents of east Jerusalem, according to the paper.
Hamas said in the Al-Hayat report that negotiations were on going, and that the German negotiator was continuing his efforts to iron out an agreement for Schalit's release.