A captured Israeli soldier has been moved across the border into Egypt, beginning an elaborate prisoner swap deal in which hundreds of Palestinian inmates are to be freed in return for the captured tank crewman, Palestinian officials in Gaza said.

RELATIVES of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks waged a charged debate yesterday over the planned release of militants this week in a deal to free an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for five years.

Israel has begun began the process of formally pardoning hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who are to be exchanged for an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants for five years.

ISRAELI and Hamas officials said last night they have reached a prisoner swap deal to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli and Hamas officials said tonight they have reached a prisoner swap deal to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Gaza Strip militants vowed today that an Israeli soldier kidnapped five years ago would not “see the light” until Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were released.

Dozens of furious Palestinians protested against the French foreign minister on a visit to the Gaza Strip today, pelting her motorcade with eggs and narrowly missing her with a lobbed shoe.

HAMAS militants yesterday traded a two-minute video showing an apparently unharmed captured Israeli soldier for 19 Palestinian women held in Israeli jails – the first tangible step toward defusing a key flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.

Israeli authorities broke up a series of Palestinian cultural events as part of a crackdown in Jerusalem, disrupting a children’s march and bursting balloons at a school celebration.

Israel today ruled out any Gaza peace deal until Hamas Islamic militants release a soldier captured three years ago.

Israel’s Security Cabinet will meet today to consider a possible prisoner exchange with Hamas, freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a soldier captured in June 2007.

Critics of Israel’s prisoner exchange with Lebanese guerrillas said that such deals only encourage more hostage-taking – a fear underscored by Gaza militants who said the swap proves that kidnapping is the only language Israel understands.

Israel increased the trickle of badly needed goods flowing into the Gaza Strip today, a military spokesman said, in the latest stage of a four-day-old truce with Hamas militants.

A Hamas official in Gaza has today confirmed that radical Islamic group Hamas and Israel have agreed a truce which begins on Thursday.