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Sisi asks Netanyahu to delay prisoner deal with Hamas

December 15, 2014 at 12:24 pm

In a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi requested he not negotiate towards a possible prisoners swap with Hamas, Western sources have said.

PLS48.net said that the telephone call between the two men, conducted on November 28, concentrated on discussing the issue of the Israeli prisoners and deaths at the hands of Hamas.

The sources said Al-Sisi asked Netanyahu to delay discussing the issue of the Israeli soldiers with Hamas, which demands facilitating the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and lifting the eight-year siege on the coastal enclave.

According to the sources, Netanyahu asked Al-Sisi to raise the issue however, the Egyptian premier requested the matter be left until it has “become cold” as this would put additional pressure on Hamas.

The Western sources said that Netanyahu does not want a new prisoner swap similar to the one conducted between Israel and Hamas in 2001, when Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, half of which were serving life sentences.

Al-Sisi has been trying to hinder negotiations in order not to give an additional sense of victory to Hamas, the sources said, as he believes this would strengthen the movement’s power.

Following an Israeli attack on Gaza this summer, indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks were held in Cairo to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and ending the Israeli siege on the enclave.

Egypt suspended hosting the talks while it conducted “security operations” in Sinai, along the border with Gaza.