By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem
**Israeli President Shimon Peres has said that progress has been made in attempting to secure the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.**Mr Peres was speaking after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
Gilad Shalit was seized just across the border from Gaza by Palestinian militants in June 2006.
Since then, negotiations on a prisoner swap have failed to come to fruition, but there are now signs of movement.
“We all know progress has been made,” the Israeli president announced.
The significance of this brief statement lies not just in its content - but the fact that it was made at all.
Senior Israeli figures have long refused to comment on how negotiations to release Gilad Shalit might be going.
Now there is an intense thrum of speculation, from both the Israeli and the Palestinian side, about a possible prisoner swap.
That would involve Israel releasing several hundred jailed Palestinians, including some who are serving time for murder - and the Islamist Hamas movement releasing Sgt Shalit.
There have been intense cycles of rumour before.
But what has changed recently has been the involvement, from earlier this year, of a German mediator.
And last month, for the first time, Hamas produced a video of their captive, in return for Israel releasing 20 Palestinian prisoners.