Hamas has agreed on a list of the 250 of its members currently imprisoned in Israel that it wants released as part of a deal to provide Israel with information about the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in Operation Protective Edge – Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul – and two captive civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported Monday.
Two weeks ago, in an interview to Al-Aqsa TV about how the authorities in the Gaza Strip were preparing to confront the coronavirus epidemic, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar mentioned that Hamas might be willing to make concessions if Israel would release elderly prisoners, who were more at risk from corona.
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Since the interview, rumors and denials about a supposed deal have been rife.
A week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Yaron Blum, who leads Israel's negotiations to bring its captive and fallen citizens home, and the National Security Council were prepared to take action to bring the missing Israelis home and were calling for immediate talks through mediators.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi al-Jadeed reported, however, that Israel had not responded to Sinwar's offer at all. According to the Qatari paper, while Hamas has denied holding any negotiations for a prisoner exchange, a new mediator has entered the ring.
Al-Akhbar has reportedly learned that a former German mediator who was involved in the deal to release captive soldier Gilad Schalit starting in 2011, has delivered messages to Hamas.
Meanwhile, sources in Hamas are saying that the group is willing to carry out preliminary steps for a deal that would entail the release of 250 prisoners in exchange for "information." The sources said that Hamas was unwilling to talk about a final deal until Israel released 55 Hamas members who had been freed in exchange for Schalit but re-imprisoned.
