Israel's jailing of freed Palestinian prisoners harms possible swap deal: Hamas

Israel's decision to re-sentence Palestinian prisoners who were re-arrested after being freed in 2011 will not serve any other upcoming swap deal, a Hamas spokesman said Tuesday.

"This decision won't succeed to blackmail the movement or exert pressure on it," Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in an emailed press statement.

He asserted that "the occupation has no choice to start contacts on a new swap deal, but to release those who were arrested last year."

In October 2011, Egypt brokered a prisoners' swap deal between Israel and the Islamist movement, according to which Hamas freed an Israeli soldier held in captivity since 2006 for the release of 1,028 Palestinian prisoners.

Last year, Israel arrested 70 Hamas activists in the West Bank, who were released in the 2011 swap deal. During last summer's Israeli war on Gaza, Hamas said it held Israeli hostages and corps of dead soldiers.

Hamas insists that it will not give any information on new missing Israelis in the Gaza Strip unless Israel frees those arrested in the West Bank in May last year.

When the 1,028 prisoners were released in 2011, they signed a document that if they practiced any activity out of jail, they would be arrested and re-sentenced and will serve their prison terms they had before their release. Endit