GAZA CITY: In the past two weeks, the frequency of political statements about Hamas and Israel entering indirect negotiations to conclude a prisoner exchange deal has increased, leading some to believe that an agreement might be reached.
In Gaza, Hamas is holding two Israeli soldiers, who Israel believed were killed during the 2014 war, in addition to two others who voluntarily entered the Gaza Strip.
Israeli television quoted Palestinian sources as confirming renewed indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas, with the aim of reaching a prisoner exchange deal.
The Israeli station Channel 12 mentioned that a delegation of senior Hamas officials had arrived in Egypt last week to advance the negotiations via Egyptian intelligence officials.
That was denied, though, by Musa Dudeen, a senior Hamas official in charge of its prisoner department.
Israeli military and political officials have privately suggested that the coronavirus crisis had opened a “window of opportunity” for a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, after a similar hint from the head of the political bureau of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Al-Sinwar.
Al-Sinwar had previously suggested: “There is a possibility that an initiative to move (prisoners) by Israel (as a) humanitarian gesture (could happen) rather than an exchange process, so that sick Palestinian detainees, women and the elderly are released from prisons, and we can offer to partially offset it.”
Israeli newspapers and websites reported that as well as Egypt, Russian and German mediators were also taking part in proceedings.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar said the group would “seriously examine every proposal from Israel,” without mentioning if there had been progress on a prisoner deal.
“Hamas made clear the conditions and transferred to Israel a list of prisoners whom Hamas wants released,” he added.
Abdel-Rahman Shehab, head of the Atlas Center for Israeli Studies, said that the coronavirus crisis could give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an opportunity to secure an exchange deal with Hamas.
“The success of the deal, or not, depends on the price that each party will pay, and the focus will often be on information about the two Israeli soldiers who have been in Gaza since the 2014 war.” he said.
Shehab believes any deal will take time, since Israel wants the mediators to clarify what Hamas’s proposal is. Both sides had earlier reached an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement, divided into two phases, the first being before the formation of the next Israeli government, and the second involving prisoner exchange negotiations and reaching a long-term truce.
“The train of negotiations between Hamas and Israel after the Al-Sinwar initiative has begun to move,” said Hamza Abu Shanab, a political writer close to Hamas.
“Al-Sinwar’s talk in the media, and the Israeli media’s response, indicates the seriousness of the next stage, which may be different from previous attempts, but we are still at the beginning, and it may take some time.”
