The Israelis have reached a tentative deal with Hamas to free a soldier who has been held captive by the Palestinian militant group for five years, the Israeli government reported Tuesday.
"A brief window of opportunity has been opened that would possibly lead to Gilad Shalit's homecoming," officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
"The window appeared following fears that collapsing Mideast regimes and the rise of extremist forces would make Gilad Shalit's return impossible.
There were reports that in exchange for Sgt. Shalit, the Israelis would free up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, but cabinet officials have not confirmed that.
Also, the Egyptians - with whom the Israelis have had an increasingly difficult relationship - appear to have been involved in the tense negotiations.
"After 64 months of tough negotiations, we were able to complete the deal," an Egyptian official told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. "It was a very difficult task, which included thousands of hours of negotiations."
Shalit was snatched by Hamas militants in 2006 in a cross-border raid and the Israelis believe he is being held somewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Under the proposed deal, the swap would take place early in November, Israel Radio reported.
A senior Hamas official in Cairo confirmed a deal was in the works, the Associated Press reported.
Previous attempts to hammer out a deal to free Shalit have ended in failure.
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