Hamas is aspiring to reach a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, senior Gaza legislator Khalil al-Hayya told a press conference in the Gaza Strip Thursday, adding that it was "Israel's inflexibility" that was delaying the deal.
Hamas is believed to be holding the remains of two Israeli soldiers – Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 – as well as 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 controlling the coastal enclave.
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Al-Hayya told reported that Hamas was pursuing a "seven-point strategy" vis-à-vis Israel, which he said included demands for the rehabilitation of Gaza; "action" in Jerusalem, bolstering international ties, achieving Palestinian unity, resuming what he called "the resistance" across the West Bank, securing the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, and preserving the issue of Palestinian refugees.
The rivalry between Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the EU, US, Israel, and several other countries, and Fatah – from which the Western-backed government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hails – has grown exponentially since the Islamist terrorist group ousted Fatah from Gaza in a military coup in 2007.
The move eeffectively split the Palestinian areas into two political entities, and the efforts made over the past decade to promote a reconciliation between the Palestinian factions – the latest brokered by Egypt in late 2017 – have failed.
Al-Hayya stressed that Hamas is "more than willing" to finalize a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, but it is Israel that is "causing the delay in the deal because it will not pay the price of releasing security prisoners."
