The Egyptian-led efforts to broker a long-term cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas do not include discussions on a potential prisoner exchange, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar said Thursday.
He stressed that a truce and a potential prisoner swap are two separate issues that Hamas will not agree to link.
Hamas is holding the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, who were killed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, as well as two living Israeli captives, Ethiopian Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, both suffering from mental health issues, who crossed into Gaza willingly in 2014 and 2015 and were captured by the terrorist group.
Sinwar reportedly said that a full cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place in two months' time but reiterated that at this time, any reports of an agreement are false, as no such outline has been finalized.
He further warned against another war with Israel, saying that Hamas' military abilities have "greatly improved" since the 2014 conflict.
"What the resistance did for 51 days in 2014, it can now do for six months. We can put everyone in Tel Aviv in bomb shelters every day," he said.
Hamas' military leaders reiterated that Gaza's rulers "have no interest" in another conflict with Israel, but stressed they were "not wary of one."
Touching on the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation negotiations, Sinwar said the latest draft of a potential rapprochement presented by Cairo was "worse than those before it."
He said the sanctions imposed by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority on the Gaza Strip were "breaking all the rules" and warned that "Hamas will respond accordingly."
Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the EU, U.S., Israel and several other countries, ousted PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah-led government from the Gaza Strip in a military coup in 2007, effectively splitting the Palestinian Authority into two political entities. All efforts made over the past decade to promote a reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions – the latest brokered by Egypt in late 2017 – have failed.
