Red Cross president Peter Maurer held a closed meeting on Tuesday afternoon with head of the Hamas Movement Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip in the presence of officials from both sides.
Maurer arrived in Gaza today morning through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing.
Observers see such a visit by a Red Cross head as “one of its kind and politically motivated.”
Commenting on the visit Israel’s Channel 2 questioned if it was an advanced step towards brokering a prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli newspapers also expected that the issue of Israelis held captive in Gaza could be tabled during this meeting.
In this regard Palestinian political analyst Ayman Rafati ruled out that Maurer’s visit to Gaza and his meeting with Sinwar could yield the results which the Israeli side expects regarding the issue of its captives in view of its refusal to respond to the captors’ just demands.
Rafati expressed his belief that the Red Cross official could ask for something which had already been rejected by Hamas which is to meet with the Israeli captives in Gaza.
According to him Israel is not serious about having a new swap deal with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza during the current period so such efforts will not succeed.
However Maurer told journalists following the meeting that his talks with the leadership of Hamas were good and that the two sides discussed the difficult humanitarian situation in Gaza.
