Israel moves 430 Palestinians near prisoner swap venue

Israel bused 430 Palestinian prisoners under heavy guard to a holding facility in the Negev desert in preparation for them to be exchanged on Tuesday for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, officials said.

The prisoner swap, to take place in the nearby Egyptian desert region of Sinai, should bring to a close a saga that has obsessed Israelis over the five years of Shalit's captivity.

An official involved in the Egyptian-mediated talks confirmed to Reuters the sides had agreed in last-minute talks that "Tuesday is the day for the handovers."

Israel posted a list of all 477 prisoners due to go free, along with Shalit, in the first stage of the deal also brokered in part by Germany, opening the way for anyone opposed to their release to file a legal appeal within 48 hours.

"Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, or someone in Gaza goes nuts, it appears the deal will go through in two days," Yaakov Amidror, national security adviser for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Army Radio.

Those on the release roster included Palestinians jailed for attacks in which dozens of Israelis were killed. At least five prisoners have been in jail since their teens.

Forty-seven further Palestinians slated for release on Tuesday were moved to a holding cell in central Israel.

Some of the 477 will go home to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while others will be exiled to third countries, as yet unnamed, without stopping on Palestinian soil.

The Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza prepared a heroes' welcome for 295 of the prisoners due to be sent to the territory. Workmen hammered together an open-air stage and streets were decorated with Hamas and Palestinian flags.

"I am so happy I do not know what I will do, how will I hold him? It's been 20 years," said the mother of Baseem al-Kurd, a Hamas member who was sentenced in 1992 to eight life sentences for attacks that killed Israelis.

Workers readied an apartment for Kurd in Gaza, painting walls and repairing doors.

Shalit, a tank crewman captured in 2006 by militants who tunnelled into Israel from fenced-off Gaza and spirited him into the enclave, was expected to be handed over in Egypt's adjacent Sinai desert and flown to Israel.