Hamas: No prisoner swap until all previously released detainees are free

Hamas will not agree to a prisoner swap deal with Israel until all detainees freed on previous swaps were released from jail, Arab48.com quoted senior member Mahmoud Al-Zahar saying yesterday.

In his speech to mark Hamas’s 28th anniversary, Al-Zahar said that there will be no start to talks about any of the Israeli soldiers held in Gaza before the fulfilment of Hamas’s conditions.

He stressed that the release of Palestinian prisoners who had been released under previous agreements and an Israeli pledge not to re-arrest them are Hamas’s preconditions.

During the last year, Israel re-arrested around 70 Palestinian who were released in the prisoner swap forged with Hamas in 2011.

On Sunday, the mother of Israeli soldier Shaul Aron, who went missing during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014 and is thought to be being held as a prisoner of war, called for Hamas to prove her son is alive, saying if he was she would ensure Israel carried out a new prisoner swap.