Hamas officials reported on Thursday that a senior Hamas delegation planning to travel to Damascus to meet with Khaled Meshal and other leaders are not heading out today as planned.

The meeting was intended to discuss Israel’s response to the Hamas demands as the German-mediated efforts to close on a prisoner exchange deal continue.

The mediator, Ernst Uhrlau is heading home to Germany for Xmas, expected to return next week, as Hamas uses the time to increase the pressure on Israel, with Jerusalem waiting for the terror organization’s response to the Forum of 7 cabinet’s decision on the release.

Non official reports indicate the deadlock surrounds Israel’s insistence that 123 heavy terrorists are deported out of the country, or to Hamas-controlled Gaza, but Hamas remains opposed to the move.

In another Shalit-related report, a report from Lebanon states one of the guards responsible for Gilad Shalit has died of swine flu.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)