PARIS - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with French television Friday that an Israeli soldier captured in Gaza who has been held by Palestinian militants for 10 months will soon be released.
Separately, an official of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah was quoted by a newspaper Friday as saying two other Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah in Lebanon since last summer are being treated "humanely."
Abbas told France-24 television that efforts were under way to secure the liberation of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, seized by Gaza militants linked with the Islamist Hamas movement in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
"He will be freed shortly," said Abbas, a moderate whose Fatah party entered into a coalition government with Hamas last month.
Abbas, speaking from the Gaza Strip, also said he hoped Israeli authorities would release hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. But he said Shalit's release should not be linked to freeing the Palestinian prisoners.
"One thing does not depend on the other," Abbas said. "I am convinced Shalit must be freed."
This was not the first time that Abbas, who has been working with Egyptian mediators to win the soldier's release, has said Shalit's release was imminent.
An Israeli official said the government knows nothing about a release. The official noted that Abbas has made similar pledges in the past, but had not delivered. The official was not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Shalit was captured when Hamas-affiliated gunmen tunneled under the border between Gaza and Israel and attacked an army base, setting off weeks of Israeli reprisals last summer. Two soldiers were killed in the raid.
Shalit is believed to be held in the Gaza Strip. His condition is unknown.
The report on the two soldiers captured in Lebanon was a rare indication that they are alive. Hezbollah previously has not released any details on the condition of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev or provided any sign of life.
The two were captured on July 12, 2006 in a cross-border raid that sparked last summer's monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mahmoud Komati, the deputy leader of Hezbollah's political bureau, told the Israeli Arab newspaper As-Sennara that Islam requires that captives be given "humane treatment." When the interviewer asked Komati if that meant the two Israeli soldiers were receiving such treatment, Komati said it did.
"That's how we're treating the prisoners we're holding now, because that's in our religion," Komati said.
However, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on Friday quoted Komati as denying the newspaper report. It said Komati was not authorized to discuss the matter, and that any word on the soldiers' fate would only come from Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
Goldwasser's wife Karnit said the newspaper report did not prove anything.
"This is not a turning point, this is not a sign of life. ... A sign of life is when someone sees them, and a Red Cross representative must see them," she told Israel Radio on Friday.
Israel's Channel 2 television reported Friday evening that Hamas has given Israel a list of prisoners it is demanding be released in exchange for Shalit. Hamas officials told the AP that they had delivered a list through Egyptian mediators months ago and there were no new developments.
The Hamas-linked gunmen holding Shalit are not known to have offered any concrete indication of Shalit's condition since his capture.
Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper cited what it said was a well-informed Egyptian source as saying there has been progress in negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The source was quoted as saying that Hamas' demands had become "more sensible" following Egyptian attempts to provide the group with assurances.
Abu Mujahid, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the groups that captured Shalit, dismissed reports of progress on the matter as "speculation."
Also Friday, the Nazareth-based As-Sennara quoted anonymous Palestinian officials as saying that Shalit's family had been allowed to send him eyeglasses through Egyptian mediators attempting to negotiate his release.
The daily Yediot Ahronot said Shalit's father, Noam, sent the glasses two weeks ago. The father told the paper he had no idea whether the glasses had reached his son and said he still was waiting for a sign that he is alive.
"Has anybody seen him?" Noam Shalit asked. "Can anyone say anything about his condition? We don't know anything."
