Hamas: Israel refusing to pay the price for prisoner swap

Hamas officials on Saturday denied reports about progress concerning a possible prisoner swap with Israel.

Musa Dudin, a senior Hamas official in charge of the “prisoner portfolio” in the terror movement, said that there was nothing new regarding this issue. He held Israel responsible for the “stalemate” on the issue of a prisoner exchange with Israel.

Dudin called on the Palestinian media to “display responsibility” in handling this issue and to take into account that it’s a sensitive topic for the prisoners and their families. He also urged the Palestinian media to rely only on official sources when reporting about a prisoner swap with Israel.

Khalil al-Hayya, another senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, also denied any progress related a potential prisoner swap with Israel.

“There’s no progress in the negotiations with the occupation,” he told the Turkish news agency Anadolu. “The Israeli government is not prepared to pay a price for a new prisoner exchange.”

Hayya said that Hamas is ready to negotiate a new prisoner swap.

“We are ready, our negotiating team is ready, the files are ready and the decisions are ready,” he added. “We are ready for marathon negotiations on condition that the occupation is ready to pay the price. But Israel isn’t ready.”

Hamas’s denial came after a Palestinian news agency claimed that Israel and Hamas were close to striking a deal on a prisoner swap. The report said that Switzerland, Germany and Egypt have been mediating between Hamas and Israel to reach agreement on a prisoner swap. According to the unconfirmed report, Israel would release 2,200 Palestinian prisoners in the context of the deal, including 500 inmates serving life sentences.

Senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri confirmed last week that mediation efforts to achieve a prisoner swap with Israel had taken place in the past. “But we did not feel that the Israeli government was serious,” he said. Arouri repeated Hamas’s demand that Israel release all Palestinians who were rearrested after they were freed as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

Dozens of the 1,027 prisoners who were released in that deal were rearrested by the IDF for violating the terms of their release.

Two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, crossed separately into the Gaza Strip on their own. Soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.