Israeli forces arrest 16 in West Bank

The Palestinian sources told Arab News they were arrested in the West Bank governorates of Nablus, Jenin and Hebron.

The development came as the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mesryoon reported Wednesday that Israel and Hamas movement will resume negotiations for the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners as early as next week with Egyptian and German mediation. The resumption of talks will be more than a month after the failure of the most promising round of talks between the parties.

The report, which the paper stated was based on reliable sources, noted that France might join the talks in an effort to help overcome the differences that hindered the deal's progress. Shalit possesses French citizenship and President Nicolas Sarkozy has met with the soldier's father, Noam, several times in the past.

The report further claimed that France intends on presenting a line of new concepts to the parties, including a suggestion to carry out the deal in one stage in which Israel would release approximately 1,000 prisoners parallel to the return of Shalit, as opposed to the German mediator's plan of executing the exchange in three separate stages.

Meanwhile, Hamas accused Israel of retreating from a series of German-mediated agreements that would have paved the way for a prisoner exchange, a senior Hamas official said; Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.