Yaron Blum, Israel's coordinator for negotiating the return of prisoners of war and those missing in action, told the families of IDF soldiers Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul at the end of Holocaust Remembrance Day last week that the government is conducting mediated negotiations with Hamas in order to return those being held by the terrorist organization.
"There is an opportunity to return our sons Hadar and Oron Shaul and the civilians [Abera] Mengistu and [Hisham] al-Sayed from the hands of Hamas. To miss the opportunity now, would be a national irresponsibility," said the Goldin family on Wednesday evening, according to Maariv.
On Israel’s Memorial Day on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue working to return missing and captive Israelis.
The Almagor Terror Victims Association demanded that the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit order the cabinet to stop discussing a prisoner exchange with Hamas.
"These processes have negative strategic implications that there is no way back from," said Almagor. The association also contacted Netanyahu and members of the cabinet and asked them not to release terrorists in the deal."We, the bereaved families and the victims of terror hear, a day after the memorial day of our loved ones and its taking place in double isolation, from our families and murdered loved ones, that the government plans to submit to Hamas and release the murderers of our loved ones," said the association in a letter to Netanyahu and the members of the cabinet."In the past, each release deal only brought about more bereavement and grief and so we demand not to leave such serious steps to a temporary government acting as a transitional government," said Dr. Aryeh Bachrach, the head of Almagor.
The association complained that Israel was going to "pay terrorists in surrender to terror." Bachrach called on the state to "use the many forms of leverage in its hands against" Hamas.
Last week, Netanyahu held a meeting of the Knesset committee for matters concerning POWs and MIAs in order to discuss negotiations with Hamas, according to Channel 13. This was the first meeting of the committee on the issue.
At the beginning of April, Netanyahu stated that Israel is willing to conduct negotiations with Hamas through intermediaries to bring back the captives and missing.
Hamas captured the bodies of Goldin and Shaul during Operation Protective Edge. Mengistu was taken captive after crossing the border into Gaza. Al-Sayed was also captured after crossing the border. Both are believed to be alive.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported last week that there was progress made in the prisoner exchange negotiations, as Egypt released four Palestinian doctors from Gaza who had been arrested in Egypt for a year and a half. Egypt promised to release five remaining Palestinian prisoners without specifying a timeframe.
Al-Akhbar reported two weeks ago that Hamas is ready to release information on Israeli prisoners if Israel releases 250 prisoners it's holding, but is still not ready to negotiate a deal to release the Israeli captives.
A German mediator who was involved in the prisoner swap that led to the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 has begun participating in the current talks between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas stressed that they will only negotiate the release of the four Israelis being held if Israel releases the prisoners that were re-arrested after they were originally released in the Shalit deal, according to Al-Akhbar.
A senior Hamas source said a few days before the Al-Akhbar report that although Egypt and Russia have expressed willingness to help reach a prisoner exchange agreement, Hamas has still not received a “serious response” from Israel.
The source told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was engaged in “media equivocation” and has not actually moved towards reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.
Earlier this month, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that some parties and mediators have contacted his movement to explore the possibility of reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.
“If the enemy leaders are serious about reaching a deal, we are also ready for that in order to release our prisoners,” Haniyeh said in an interview with an Arab television network.
“We are ready to go to a round of indirect negotiations to conduct a swap deal in light of the humanitarian situation,” Haniyeh added, referring to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Khaled Abu Toameh and Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.