For the time being, a significant breakthrough has not yet been achieved in the indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas through the mediation of Egyptian intelligence personnel.
Hamas has reached an agreement with Egyptian mediators on increasing the volume and type of goods to be transferred to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah terminal - a move that will help stabilize calm with Israel and should serve as a kind of bridgehead for rehabilitating the Gaza Strip and arranging an agreement with Israel.
Despite the deadlock over the return of the bodies of the dead and the fate of the missing Israeli civilians who crossed into the Gaza Strip, Hamas is working hard to lay the groundwork for a future agreement with Israel and present it to Palestinians in Gaza - and especially to the Palestinian West Bank. bring.
A senior member of the organization's political bureau, Muhammad Nazal, was quoted in the Arab and Palestinian media over the weekend as saying Hamas had topped the list of prisoners demanding the release of former Tanzim secretary general Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted of killing hundreds of Israelis in terrorist attacks and sentenced to five more life in prison. Associated organizationally with Fatah.
These remarks faithfully express Hamas' attempt to position itself in the eyes of the Palestinian public as the one responsible for the release of Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israeli prisons, while Abu Mazen and the Fatah leadership are busy meeting and filming with Zionist government ministers making pilgrimages to the Muqata.
Hamas' demand for the release of the assassinate rabbi Barghouti, who has won widespread sympathy on the Palestinian street and in all polls conducted by the Palestinian Authority, has emerged as the most likely to succeed the Palestinian Authority chairman, is not unusual. And other Palestinian organizations.
However, Hamas is well aware of the bad blood that exists between Abu Mazen and Barghouti, and knows that the organization's demand to release the most senior Palestinian prisoner identified with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority leadership has invaluable added value. Barghouti, Hamas continues to convey to the Palestinian public in the West Bank and Gaza Strip the message that only it really cares about the issue of the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, which is, as mentioned, an issue that affects almost every family and home in Palestinian society.