Hamas has presented mediators with a “clear road map” for a prisoner exchange agreement with Israel, Zaher Jabarin, a member of the Hamas political bureau,” said on Monday.
Jabarin did not provide details about the alleged road map. He also did not name the mediators involved in the contacts to reach a prisoner exchange agreement, although it is widely believed that the Egyptians are leading efforts to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas.
Jabarin said the Hamas leadership and its armed wing “pay special attention to the prisoners’ issue, especially those serving lengthy sentences.”
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Jabarin said Hamas was also insisting on the release of all ex-prisoners who were re-arrested after being freed in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal.
The 2011 deal, brokered by German and Egyptian mediators, saw the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in return for kidnapped IDF soldier Shalit, who was being held in the Gaza Strip.
“Freeing the prisoners of the last swap deal who were re-arrested will be a condition for the completion of any upcoming deal,” Jabarin said in a statement. “The occupation tries to obtain information about its soldiers without paying any price.”
Israelis Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul, Avera Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed being held by Hamas in Gaza (credit: COURTESY OF THE FAMILY/FACEBOOK)
The Hamas official claimed that Israel tried to link the issue of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip with a prisoner exchange.
“Hamas and the resistance leadership categorically rejected it and informed all mediators of the impossibility of linking the two files,” he added.
Hamas is holding the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were killed in the 2014 war with Israel, as well as two Israeli citizens, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed into the Gaza Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
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