By Yoav Stern, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid,
Hamas has given Israel a letter apparently written by abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Haaretz has learned.
Some sources told Haaretz that Israel received a letter last month written in Shalit's handwriting. Other sources said that Hamas gave Israel a message of a different kind from the abducted soldier.
The authenticity of the letter has been examined and sent to the Shalit family. 
Sources involved in the negotiations say that the transfer of the letter to the family shows Israel's urgency to advance negotiations over the deal.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided Sunday to relax the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of a swap for Shalit, but insisted that Hamas would also have to be more flexible for a deal to be finalized.
Olmert told a meeting of senior ministers and defense officials that he was "determined" to conclude the deal, but "I do not intend to agree to whatever price Hamas asks."
The meeting was called to resolve a dispute within the defense establishment over the deal. Ofer Dekel, who Olmert appointed to conduct the negotiations over Shalit, argues that Israel should ease its criteria regarding which Palestinian prisoners to release, since otherwise, it will not be able to free enough high-level prisoners to satisfy Hamas. Diskin, however, objected, arguing that this would not only bolster Hamas, but would free terrorists who have killed Israelis in the past to kill again.
A senior government source said that Olmert had ruled in favor of Dekel. "Until now, we have demonstrated a very consistent stance on this matter, but we understood that we need to be more flexible in order to progress," the source explained. "But Hamas will also have to be more flexible in order to turn the deal into reality, and we hope it will understand that."
Nevertheless, he said, the negotiations will probably take another several months. "Yesterday (Saturday), a small but important step was taken, without which it was not possible to move forward, so everything was stuck," the source said. "But that doesn't mean we're at the end. Far from it. This is a matter of months."
The main problem is that there is still no agreement on which prisoners Israel will release in exchange for Shalit. To date, Israel has agreed to free only a few of the people Hamas is demanding. 
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