Although Israel has earlier announced that the indirect Egypt-brokered talks with Hamas on finalizing a prisoners' swap deal might be resumed soon, officials of Hamas movement said on Wednesday they didn't receive any clue about it.

On Tuesday, Israeli Television channel II expected in a report that the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel on releasing captive Israeli corporal in Gaza Gilad Shalit would be resumed soon, adding that Hamas has sent through the Egyptian mediators a modified list of prisoners that the movement wants to set free for Shalit.

Hamas gunmen and two other less-influential militant groups abducted Shalit in late June 2006 in an armed attack they carried out against an Israeli army base just outside southeast Gaza Strip. Shalit's captors demanded to release 1,450 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for releasing the soldier.

Osama al-Mzeini, a senior Hamas official authorized to speak about a possible swap deal with Israel, told reporters that his movement hasn't received any official notice from the Egyptian mediators concerning the resumption of the talks on finalizing a prisoners' exchange deal with Israel.

However, he said "The recent Israeli reports indicate that Israel has an attitude to resume the talks on releasing the captive soldier." The Israeli TV report quoted unnamed official Egyptian sources as saying that the talks would be resumed from where it ended before Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a joint news conference in Cairo on Tuesday with Israeli President Shimon Peres that Shalit is still alive, and that Shalit's case will be over very soon.

"I wonder on what facts or information President Mubarak has counted on. It might be just a kind of public relation between the two countries (Israel and Egypt), but we really still can't prove if he (Shalit) is alive or dead, after the Israeli war on Gaza in January," said al-Mzeini.

When asked about who can prove if Shalit is still alive, al-Mzeini replied to reporters, "Only the very narrow circle (of Hamas militants) that surrounds Shalit can know, and we are not in contact with them."

He denied what was reported in Israeli TV report on Tuesday night that Hamas had sent a modified list of prisoners, adding "there is no new list and there are no modified lists. We had our list which was presented to Israel through the Egyptian mediator and we didn't change it."

Hamas demanded through the Egyptian mediators to free 1,450 prisoners, including 450 who serve long-term sentences and 1,000 prisoners that include women, patients, the aged as well as Hamas lawmakers and ministers.

Before the indirect talks on freeing Shalit stopped in February, Israel agreed to free 320 prisoners that serve long-term sentences and deport the rest to other Arab countries. Hamas and Israel had traded accusations that each side was responsible for blowing up the talks and thwarting a possible prisoners' swap deal.

"Kidnapping the Israeli soldier aimed at releasing the prisoners who spend long terms in Israeli jails, so how can we modify it? Changing the list means for us emptying the swap deal of its content."

Meanwhile, Khalil al-Hayya, a Gaza-based Hamas hardliner, welcomed in a special interview with Xinhua the reports that Israel will add improvements to the delivery of goods to Gaza through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossings.

However, he stressed that those improvements "will not affect the negotiations to release Shalit under a prisoner exchange." The reports said that the facilitation was meant to ease the talks.

Al-Hayya confirmed that the Egypt-brokered negotiations between his movement and Israel over Shalit "have been halted since the Israeli elections" in February, adding that Hamas was ready to resume the talks "but from the point they had stopped at" during the former Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman said in a statement sent to the media that "there has been no new thing on Shalit's case and the ball is in the Israel's court," adding that "Hamas is still sticking to the conditions it outlined to accomplish a prisoner exchange."

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)