Hamas is close to reaching a prisoner-exchange agreement with Israel, its leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, hinted Monday.
“There is a real opportunity to achieve progress” regarding a prisoner-exchange agreement with Israel, he told reporters in GazaCity after meeting with Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service.
Hamas is ready to hold indirect negotiations with Israel to reach a prisoner swap, Sinwar said.
“We are confident that we are able to extract our rights,” he said. “I want to tell you something. Remember the number 1,111. What are the details of this number? I can’t say at this moment. But you need to remember this number well.”
Sinwar was apparently referring to the number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel that his group is demanding in return for two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers held by the Gaza-based terrorist group.
Efforts to reach a prisoner-exchange agreement had witnessed “movements” in the past, but they were stopped due to the unstable political situation in Israel after the last general election, Sinwar said.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions are scheduled to hold talks in Cairo in the coming days as part of an effort to “unify the Palestinian position,” he said.
Sinwar and other Hamas leaders said they told Kamel they were opposed to linking the issue of a prisoner exchange with reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the ceasefire that was reached two weeks ago with Israel.
The Egyptians have made progress in their mediation efforts to reach a new prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian sources said over the weekend.
Kamel’s visit to Israel, Ramallah and the Gaza Strip shows that the Egyptians have decided to throw their full weight behind the efforts to strike a prisoner-exchange deal and reach a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, they said.
Hamas is holding two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered the Gaza Strip on their own, and the bodies of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed in the 2014 Gaza War.
Kamel arrived in the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing with Israel after holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials on Sunday. It was his first visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since his appointment as GIS chief in 2018.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged $500 million to contribute to the reconstruction effort.
Any plan concerning the Gaza Strip must be coordinated in advance with the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told Kamel on Sunday.
“We talked about the need to accelerate the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and we welcome all efforts in this regard,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip. “The prisoner-exchange issue is an independent file, and we do not accept linking it to other files, such as the reconstruction. The Egyptians understand our stance.”
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a prisoner swap stopped when the recent fighting broke out in early May, he said.
“The occupation is not serious,” Hayya said, referring to efforts to reach a prisoner-exchange deal. “If it is serious, we can proceed with it quickly.”
The Hamas officials stressed during the meeting with Kamel the need to completely lift the “siege” imposed on the Gaza Strip, he said.
The two sides also discussed ways of achieving Palestinian national unity, Hayya said, referring to the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction.