"Israel will soon cave in to the conditions of the factions that abducted Gilad Schalit and accept all of them," Hamas Justice Minister Muhammad Faraj al-Ghul said Wednesday.

"All of the Palestinian prisoners on the list will be released, including life term prisoners, long-term prisoners, women and minors. Without this, there will be no deal," he said.

However, Asharq Alawsat was told by Egyptian sources Wednesday that there has recently been progress in negotiations for the release of Schalit.

The sources said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had shown a positive attitude towards the negotiations and agreed to resume negotiations from the point where they were halted at the end of Ehud Olmert's term as premier - a very advanced point, they said. Still, they added, the progress was not "dramatic" so far.

The Asharq Alawsat report could not be independently confirmed.

In response to the report, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees identified as Abu Mujhad told the Palestinian news agency Ma'an that there was no progress whatsoever in the talks, and that the reports of developments were an Israeli deception.

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