Gaza faction sees end to hostage crisis in days

GAZA, Oct 28 (Reuters) One of the three Palestinian factions holding a captured Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip said today that it expected a solution to the crisis within days.

It was the first time since Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in June that any of the factions has said that his release could happen soon. The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said in a statement that the three groups had agreed to a proposal by Egyptian mediators, though it said a deal still depended on Israel. Israeli officials made no immediate comment.

The PRC did not give details, but said the Egyptian proposal would include the release of Palestinians held by Israel.

''The dawn of freedom to the prisoners is about to rise and we expect a solution to our prisoners in few days,'' said a PRC spokesman, Abu Mujahed. ''We confirm to you that there is a definite move in the issue of the captured soldier.'' The governing Hamas Islamist group said this week that it was optimistic about resolving the crisis, but did not set any time frame. The armed wing of Hamas was also among the groups that captured Shalit.

Hamas and its allies have demanded the release of up to 1,400 Palestinians, including minors and women, held by Israel in exchange for Shalit. Israel has said Hamas must first release Shalit and then it will consider any prisoner release.

Last week, Israel's infrastructure minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, held talks in Cairo and afterwards expressed approval of a framework deal that Egypt had put forward, but he did not give details of the deal.

Shalit's capture prompted Israel to send troops back into the Gaza Strip almost one year after withdrawing from the territory it had captured in the 1967 war. More than 260 Palestinians, about half of them militants, have been killed in the subsequent Israeli Offensive.

REUTERS DKA VV1331