CAIRO: Egypt and Israel are adding the “final touches” to a deal to swap an Israel-American detained in Cairo for a group of Egyptian prisoners and children, the official MENA news agency said Saturday.

“MENA has learned that the final touches are currently being made for a deal to swap Israeli spy Ilan Grapel, accused of spying on Egypt for Israel.”

“After Egyptian efforts, the number of Egyptian prisoners held in Israeli jails to be released will be increased to between 20 and 30 prisoners,” a high-level official told MENA.

The state agency had initially said that 16 Egyptians would be released in the deal, in addition to three children.

According to MENA, the three children had been acquitted by an Israeli court of illegally crossing into Israel to sell cigarettes, but prosecutors appealed the ruling.

The caretaker Cabinet tasked the Foreign Ministry Thursday to oversee the exchange, two days after Israel freed hundreds of Palestinians for an Israeli soldier held by the Palestinian group Hamas in an Egyptian-mediated swap.

Grapel, who has been in custody since June 12, is accused of being an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt during the February uprising.

Egyptian media published photographs of Grapel after his arrest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, inside a mosque and in a downtown Cairo bar. Pictures taken from his Facebook account showed him in Israeli military uniform.

Grapel served in the military like most Israelis as a conscript and was wounded in its 2006 war with the Lebanese Hezbollah.

Israel has denied the accusations.

Last week, unnamed Israeli officials told public radio that a deal was in the works to release a U.S.-Israeli joint national held in Cairo in exchange for 81 Egyptians held in Israel.