by David Harris

    JERUSALEM, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The families of hundreds of Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails along with relatives of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are hoping the latest reports of a key prisoner being moved jails in Israel is the precursor to a prisoner exchange.

    The head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmed Saadat has been transferred to a prison where most of the other Palestinian inmates likely to be released are located.

    Israel will have to free upwards of 1,000 prisoners in order to gain the release of Shalit, who was captured by Hamas operatives on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip three years ago.

    Saadat's transfer to Ramon Prison from a jail in the coastal city Ashkelon has brought with it over the last two days a deluge of media coverage, suggesting the prisoner swap deal is once again going ahead.

    Meanwhile, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday that Egyptian officials will meet Hamas leaders in Syria this week for talks on a prisoner exchange.

    While these two stories are gaining much coverage, those closest to them are playing them down, and Shalit's family is left wondering why so often the media had got it wrong when it comes to writing supposed news of Gilad's release.

    Saadat's transfer has nothing to do with a prisoner swap, PFLP politician and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Khalida Jarrar told Xinhua. He was switched as a punishment, she said.

    Apparently Saadat was placed in solitary confinement for a month but managed to interact with other prisoners, she said, adding, as a result, he was taken to the higher-security prison.

    "We want them to release him because his arrest was illegal. He was kidnapped from Jericho prison in Palestinian territory and his sentence was not legal because he was never tried in a legal court," said Jarrar. After Israel seized Saadat from the Jericho jailhouse, he was tried by a military tribunal.

    Israel says the PFLP was behind the assassination of Israeli government minister Rehavam Zeevi, who was shot in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.

    Hamas is demanding Saadat's release as part of any deal that would see Shalit sent back home.

    Israel says many of the Palestinian inmates appearing on Hamas' list to be freed in exchange for Shalit are terrorists. It says dozens of them have blood on their hands and were behind many of the worst terror attacks launched against Israeli civilians.

    Hamas takes a very different view.

    "Some of those on the list we have given the Israelis are women and children and others who were sentenced for a long time. We're talking about 1,000 prisoners," said Bassem Naim, health minister in the Hamas government in Gaza.

    For the families of the prisoners, the waiting is long and distressing. Repeated media speculation is causing them untold anguish.

    A report by the Palestinian Ma'an news agency on June 23 suggested Shalit was about to be handed over to the Egyptians and 1,000 Palestinians were to be freed in exchange.

    As that news item gained increasing credence in the journalistic world, many top Egyptian reporters made their way to the border to cover the story. Yet, like so many others over the past three years, it ended in bitter disappointment.

    "I did put the media in my agenda. Most of the reportage is wrong," Noam Shalit, Gilad's father said on Tuesday night.

    He said he has learned that most of what appears in the media is "spin". Some argue the very fact that Shalit is still a headline three years on keeps him in the public's eye and that can only help in securing his freedom.

    That of course assumes that Shalit is alive. Israel has learnt from bitter experience that when those holding Israeli soldiers overseas have refused to comment on whether their prisoners are alive or dead, they have inevitably come home in body bags. Hamas has carefully kept Shalit's condition a secret.

    The Red Cross has not been allowed to see him and often Hamas spokespeople have insisted on saying they do not know his condition. When Xinhua spoke with Naim on Tuesday, he said he could not comment one way or another.

    "There's a very serious reason why the Hamas political people and spokespeople are very careful in warning that they do not know if he is alive or not, and that's because they know that he isn't," said Aaron Lerner, the director of IMRA, the Israeli-based Independent Media Review & Analysis.

    But that type of talk is brushed away by the Shalit campaign, which tries to be as optimistic as possible. Noam Shalit says while things are quiet right now in a month's time, there could be reason to be upbeat. The Muslim holy month Ramadan is traditionally a time when Israel has made gestures to the Palestinians by freeing prisoners. Shalit hopes this time Hamas could show some reciprocity.

    There are other reasons why the Shalit deal is a hot topic in the media and why Hamas could be tempted to accept a swap.

    On Tuesday, Fatah completed an arguably highly-successful congress, which has brought about a new leadership in the movement and has taken the media spotlight away from its main rival, Hamas. Palestinian pundits say Fatah's chances of electoral success in January are now much higher.

    As a result, Hamas needs to do something that will put it center stage once again and that will endear it to the voters. The return of 1,000 or more Palestinians would certainly do that.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts