A former Hamas leader has said the Gaza-controlled terrorist group must get “bargain chips” for use in a prisoner-to-prison exchange agreement with Israel.
In a recorded statement released Saturday, Khaled Mashaal said Hamas must impose on Israel a price similar to a swap in 2011 in which the Israeli government liberated over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists convicted of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit , captured in 2006.
“After this treaty the enemy tried to limit itself and not allow an additional exchange treaty, to counter the Palestinian conflict,” Mashaal said, according to the Ynet news site.
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He said: “We know this is a drill, part of the psychological war. When we retain an Israeli soldier, the Israeli leadership can only agree to our demands. ”
Thus, Mashaal said, the terrorist group was working to obtain “bargaining chips” to free Palestinian security prisoners.
Photo: Hamas members watch as a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners arrives at the Rafah cross with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on October 18, 2011. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90)
Mashaal, a native of the West Bank now living in Qatar, headed the Hamas political bureau from 1996 to 2017, when he was replaced by former leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas is currently believed to be holding two Israeli civilians, Avera Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza alone in 2014-2015, and the remains of two Israeli soldiers , First Class Sergeant Oron Shaul and Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, killed in action during the 2014 Gaza war.
Left to right: Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin and Avraham Mengistu. (Flash90 / The Times of Israel)
Since their capture Israel has been working to free them, often using Egyptian weapons, which maintain ties with Jerusalem and Hamas, as intermediaries.
Hamas is seeking the release of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons – both members of Hamas and other terrorist groups. Some of the inmates had already been released in the 2011 prisoner exchange contract, but were re-arrested during a crackdown in 2014 on the West Bank terrorist group following the eviction and murder of three Israeli teenagers. .
While Israeli officials have acknowledged that talks are underway for the release of Hamas-held Israeli captives, they have stopped talking about the specific proposals and offers that it is done in the conversations.
