The Israeli president Rueven Rivlin said he will appeal to the Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan to release the Israeli soldiers held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
Speaking with the Israeli radio Rivlin said he had appealed in earlier occasions to the Turkish President to retrieve the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
He added that he will resume talks to that very end with the newly-tapped Turkish Ambassador within the next few weeks.
Speaking with Israel’s Channel 2 a couple of days earlier Erdogan responded to a question about the Israeli soldiers held captive by Hamas by stating that thousands of Palestinians are locked up in Israeli jails and that an exchange should be negotiated to release the detainees.
Erdogan further expressed his readiness to broker prisoner swap negotiations should Israel show a readiness to free the Palestinian captives.
He said the Israelis should rather negotiate with Hamas—the people’s elect—after they failed to reach a deal with the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas following decades of stalled peace talks.
The Turkish President also dismissed categorizing Hamas as a terrorist organization calling it an elected political party and a national movement born out of a legitimate struggle for liberation.
A few months earlier Hamas armed wing—the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades—released photos of four Israeli soldiers held captive by the group and said it will not reveal further details “for free.”
