Egypt leads new Hamas-Israel talks for prisoners swap deal: sources

Egyptian intelligence has been conducting intensive talks recently with the Gaza-run Islamic Hamas to define the parameters of a prisoners swap deal with Israel, official sources said on Wednesday. 

Egyptian intelligence personnel met with several Hamas officials during visits to Cairo in which they discussed ways to reach a prisoners swap with Israel, according to two senior Hamas officials, who preferred to be unnamed. 

Speaking to The New Arab, a Hamas source said that "both Egypt and Hamas discussed implementing a partial swap deal that included the release of 600 sick Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of the Israeli captive Hisham al-Sayed."

"However, the results of talks are still not positive, especially in light of the intransigence of the Israeli side in implementing the demands of the Hamas so far," the source noted. 

The new Egyptian effort for a deal came after Hamas published a short video showing al-Sayed's health detriorating, according to the source. 

Hamas holds four Israeli soldiers, while Israel officially claims that two of them, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, were killed in Gaza during the Israeli military offensive in 2014 and that Hamas is holding only their remains.

Another official source in Hamas questioned the Israeli version of the fate of its soldiers, saying, "If its information is correct, why did it (Israel) urge Egypt to restore its role in mediating between us."

The source further said that Hamas is ready to provide information about Shaul and Goldin through the proposed information deal.

To do that, Hamas has asked Israel to release women, the elderly and children prisoners, and "liberated prisoners" who were re-arrested in 2014. 

In 2011, Hamas and Israel implemented a prisoner exchange deal in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian detainees, including prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, in return for Hamas freeing captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

In 2014, Israel re-arrested 49 of the "liberated detainees" who lived in the West Bank.

Since then, Hamas has been seeking to reach a prisoner exchange deal through indirect negotiations with Israel under Egyptian and UN mediations, but Israel has refused to do so.

"It is clear that the Israeli government does not want to offer a glimmer of hope to the families of the captured soldiers by assuring them of the fate of their children, and it continues to lie to them,” the source said. 

The source added that "if Israel believes that its allegations will drive Hamas to despair or reduce its demands in exchange for the implementation of the deal (...) then it will be really and illusory because the issue of liberating our prisoners is a priority for us."