Head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya has revealed that Egypt started to mediate indirect talks to broker a prisoner swap deal between the Hamas Movement and the Israeli occupation government.
In televised remarks to al-Jazeera satellite channel on Wednesday night Haneyya affirmed that there was no breakthrough in the indirect talks over a swap deal which started recently with the Israeli side adding that there are four Israeli soldiers in the hands of al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas in Gaza.
“If the occupation responds to the Palestinian demands to reach this deal so be it; otherwise what we have will remain with us but if we do not reach a deal our arm is long and can increase the harvest” the Hamas leader underlined.
He also attributed the absence of any breakthrough in the swap deal talks to Israel’s lack of seriousness to release its soldiers.
“The release of all prisoners of the Wafaa al-Ahrar deal (Shalit deal) is a main prerequisite for striking this deal and in case we have a new one we will take all the guarantees so that the occupation does not repeat the same thing and rejail anyone released” Haneyya said.
Talking about Israel’s intent to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank the Hamas official asserted that “his Movement would never allow this criminal annexation plan to pass” and that “the Palestinian people are able to foil such plans.”
He pointed out that Hamas has a comprehensive plan to confront Israel’s annexation plan calling for necessarily allowing the Palestinian people and their armed resistance in the West Bank to respond to this plan which he described as a “dangerous and unusual step.”
