GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a prominent Hamas leader, stated Tuesday that the truce requirements are to lift the siege and stop the aggression while the issue of Gilead Shalit, the captive Israeli soldier, is a separate one.

In an exclusive press statement to the PIC reporter, Dr. Zahhar added that the issue of Shalit comes within the context of a prisoner swap deal which is completely separate from the calm issue and requires the release of 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas leader underlined that the initiative was in the first place an Egyptian initiative and Hamas along with the other Palestinian factions responded to it in order to prove to the world that the party which is responsible for the cycle of violence is the Israeli occupation.

Israeli media leaks reported that Israel demanded the release of Shalit as a part of the truce during the visit of Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman to Tel Aviv on Monday to discuss the calm issue.

For his part, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, charged that the Israeli occupation deliberately issues contradictory statements through its media outlets in order to drag the resistance factions into media wrangling with the aim of foiling the Egyptian efforts and showing that Hamas is the party which rejected the calm.

The spokesman pointed out that Hamas is still awaiting a formal response through the intelligence minister of Egypt who met with Israeli war minister Ehud Barak and discussed with him the Movement's proposals for the truce.