Gaza/Tel Aviv, Dec 6 – A team of four French doctors visited the Gaza Strip last week to examine an Israeli soldier held there for three-and-a-half years, ahead of a possible prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

There was, however, no official confirmation from Israel or Hamas of the report, which appeared in the Sama Palestinian news agency and in other Arab media. The father of the Israeli soldier told the Y-Net news site that he had no knowledge of the doctors’ visit.

Gilad Shalit was snatched during a cross-border raid three militants launched from the Gaza Strip June 25, 2006, and has been held, virtually incommunicado, since then.

Hamas is demanding that Israel free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from its jails in return for the soldier. Negotiations over the deal, conducted at first under Egyptian mediation, but now being carried out via German auspices, are said to be well advanced.

According to the reports Sunday, the four doctors entered the Strip via the Rafah crossing from Egypt one week ago, and, under heavy Hamas guard, were taken to see Shalit. The German mediator accompanied them.