Hamas insists on release of Israeli hostages through a ‘real and serious’ deal

A senior Hamas official has insisted that the return of any Israeli hostages held in Gaza will only happen through compliance with conditions set by the resistance movement and presented to mediators in Egypt and Qatar. Only a “real and serious” prisoner exchange deal will be possible, said Osama Hamdan.

Hamdan told a press conference in Beirut on Monday that the “heroic” resistance in Gaza refutes claims by the Israeli occupation forces that their murderous attacks on civilians have deterred the movement’s armed wing from its resistance efforts.

The Hamas official noted that the occupation’s desperate attempts to escalate its military escalation by committing more massacres throughout the Strip will not succeed in applying pressure to achieve any kind of “victory”.

Moreover, he stressed that the longer Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters delay a credible prisoner exchange deal, the more hostages will lose their lives at the hands Israel’s bombing and US missiles.

Hamdan warned that the continued evasion, procrastination, bombing and aggression means that the occupation prisoners may return to their families in the apartheid state as corpses, or that they may not return at all.

READ: Netanyahu gov’t will not conclude prisoner swap deal: negotiator says