Israel said to have offered concessions to Hamas on prisoner swap deal
An unnamed senior Hamas official said, “the ball is now back in the Israeli court.”
By TOVAH LAZAROFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEHUpdated: DECEMBER 15, 2020 20:58Israelis Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul, Avera Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed being held by Hamas in Gaza(photo credit: COURTESY OF THE FAMILY/FACEBOOK)
Israel has offered new concessions to Hamas with the hope of reaching a prisoner exchange agreement, the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday.On Monday, Hamas denied reports of a breakthrough in negotiations to achieve a prisoner swap with Israel.The purported concessions were offered to Hamas through Egyptian mediators who visited the Gaza Strip last week, the newspaper said.An unnamed senior Hamas official told the newspaper that the Hamas leadership responded to the Israeli “concessions” by saying that they are “below expectations.” According to the source, “the ball is now back in the Israeli court.”The source claimed that for the first time Israel offered to release hundreds of Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of two IDF soldiers Shaul Oron and Hadar Goldin, believed to have been killed in the 2014 Gaza War.Two Israel civilians held in Gaza, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed would also be part of the deal. It’s believed that both men suffer from mental illness and as a result crossed over into Gaza, where they were taken captive. Mengistu has been held since September 2014, and al-Sayed since 2015.The latest initiative comes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which 8,717 of the active 24,435 Palestinian cases are in Gaza.The Jerusalem Post sister publication Maariv reported over the weekend that Gaza would receive increased aid to fight the pandemic as part of the deal.The Goldin family has long argued that Israel should link humanitarian assistance to a captive release.Past negotiations have also included terms for sustained calm between Hamas and the IDF, including the cessation of rocket fire.There have been numerous reports over the past years of possible breakthroughs, with regard to prisoner swaps, but nothing has ever come to fruition, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past pledged to secure the release of the captives and the remains of the soldiers.
