Hamas: Turkey is ready to mediate prisoner swap

Turkey is ready to mediate a prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, local Palestinian news agency QudsNet reported a senior Hamas leader as saying yesterday.

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said: “Turkey is ready to mediate a prisoner swap. However, there is nothing real on the ground.”

He said a delegation from Islamic Jihad had met with Hamas leader Mousa Abu-Marzouk in Cairo, Egypt, and they discussed several issues including briefing Abu-Marzouk regarding the outcome of the discussions with the Egyptian officials.

“We are waiting for the return of the delegation from Cairo to know about the results [of the talks].” Adding that Egypt needs to review its position because Hamas has a positive attitude towards Egypt.

Regarding the border crossings, Hamdan said they are the responsibility of the Palestinian unity government. “We [Hamas] are committed to the reconciliation agreement and we need no more initiatives. We only need obligations to the already existing agreements.”

Hamdan reiterated that his movement’s relations with Qatar are very strong, and described the continuous remarks of different Israeli officials about a new war on Gaza as “part of a psychological war”.

“The occupation knows that any war on Gaza will have no positive outcomes for it.”