A senior leader of Islamic Hamas movement expected on Monday that the prisoners swap deal between his movement and Israel will be finalized in December.

Fathi Hammad, the interior minister in the deposed government of Hamas in Gaza, told family members of Palestinian prisoners in Gaza that his government hopes to finalize the prisoners' swap deal very soon.

Dozens of Palestinian prisoners' families gathered on Monday at the pro-Hamas prisoners' association "Wa'ed" to mark the Moslems' holiday of Eid El-Adha in Gaza. The interior minister attended the celebration.

"We are working on making the finalization of the prisoners' swap deal happening at the same time of the 22-year-anniversary of establishing Hamas movement which will be on December 14," said Hammad.

He added that "it will be two happy anniversaries, the first is the release of the prisoners and the second is the 22 years for establishing Hamas movement in the Palestinian territories."

The talks on releasing captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails are still going on, where both Israel and Hamas movement refuse to talk in details about the negotiations.

"Victory is getting close and we will soon celebrate the freedom of the prisoners despite the occupation's will," said Hammad, without giving any more details.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to resume the indirect talks mediated by German and Egypt over finalizing the prisoners' swap deal right after the end of Eid El-Adha holiday of the Moslems. The holiday ends on Monday night.

Hammad statements were made as reports were conflicting over the progress in the negotiations, where earlier reports had said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is demanding a goodwill gestures from Israel to finalize the deal.

Both Israel and Hamas are imposing heavy secrecy on the prisoners' swap deal negotiations. Some sources talk about a progress while other sources said that there are still obstacles that would obstruct finalizing the deal soon.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2009)