Hamas official: "Development in the issue of prisoner exchange" Israel today

The deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Musa Abu Marzuk, said this morning (Friday) in an interview with al-Arabi al-Jadid that Israel has decided to address the issue of a prisoner exchange deal after months of postponements.

He further noted that there has been a major development in the issue.

Abu Marzuk explained that "the deal will be ready within a few weeks if Israel meets Hamas' demands."

According to him, Israel is maneuvering, betting on time and procrastinating.

The senior member of the terrorist organization did not elaborate on the nature of the deal or the demands presented by Hamas, but in the past, the initial condition of the release of detainees from the Shalit deal from 2011 was set.

According to Abu Marzuk, Hamas has set a threshold, according to which prisoners will be released in exchange for prisoners.

Senior officials in Cairo and Gaza confirmed that indirect contacts had been renewed through the mediation of Egyptian intelligence into a deal to return IDF casualties Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul, and the two Israeli civilians who crossed the perimeter fence into Gaza and were captured by Hamas.

In recent days, it has been reported in the Egyptian media and in the Palestinian media that a delegation of senior Israeli security officials arrived in Cairo during Sukkot and the Sabbath, in order to promote the ongoing contacts with the Egyptian mediators.

Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Sinwar // Photo: AFP, Photo: AFP

It was also reported that the UN envoy to the Middle East met in Gaza with senior Hamas figures.

According to Palestinian media reports, the meeting dealt with the promotion of UN employment projects in the Gaza Strip, but senior sources in the terrorist organization confirmed that the meeting with the UN envoy was primarily intended to coordinate moves between UN representatives in the Middle East and Hamas and Egyptian mediators.

This is in preparation for the possibility that the contacts will progress significantly towards the execution of a transaction.

A member of the Hamas political bureau and in charge of the prisoner file, Zahar Jabarin, said in an interview with Radio a-Shams, which broadcasts from Nazareth, that the outline submitted by Har Gon to Egyptian mediators includes demands for the release of all prisoners arrested from the Shalit deal. , As well as the release of dozens of minors imprisoned and detained in Israel. "We are ready for a deal, but what Israel is offering does not meet our minimum threshold conditions," Jabarin said. He stressed that "Hamas is strongly opposed to making the deal conditional on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip." According to him, the mediation contacts are mainly conducted by the Egyptians, "but there are other international factors involved in the effort. The ball is now in Israel's court."

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar also quoted a senior Hamas official as saying that the organization had forwarded to Egyptian mediators two proposals for a deal that would be implemented in several stages, with the first two proposals releasing prisoners released in the Shalit deal and re-arrested after returning to terrorist activities. Female prisoners and minors, and elderly and sick prisoners.

The second phase of the two proposals includes the wholesale release of about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and even more, most of whom were involved in terrorist attacks in which hundreds of Israelis, soldiers and members of the security forces were killed.