Israel has thwarted several international mediations that aimed at brokering a prisoner exchange deal between the Jewish state and the Palestinian IslamicHamas movement, a Hamas official said on Monday.

"The main mediator was Egypt but there were also several international movements which were disappointed when it collided with the Israeli hardness," said Osama al-Muzini, a Hamas' negotiator for the prisoners' case.

In 2006, Hamas captured Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip. Hamas demands to exchange Shalit for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and insisting that it would select the names of the first 450 inmates to be freed.

Al-Muzini said he can not reveal who were the other countries "due to their intention not to be disclosed."

Israel has accused Hamas of foiling the exchange in the last minute in their indirect talks brokered by Egypt by increasing the demands, but Hamas returned the blame on Israel.

Israel announced that the issue of Shalit would be transferred to the upcoming government led by the rightist Benjamin Netanyahu. However, al-Muzini said, "Hamas was only interested in getting its demands met, regardless who deals with the case."