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Hamas rejects two prisoner swap proposals: Israeli official

Xinhua, September 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hamas has rejected two Israeli offers to swap Palestinian prisoners for Israeli civilians who crossed the border into Gaza and the remains of soldiers, an Israeli envoy said on Tuesday.

Lior Lotan, the Israeli prime minister's liaison for prisoners and missing people, told an anti-terror conference in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, outside Tel Aviv, that the offers were made through a third party.

Lotan said the first deal was offered to Hamas, the Islamist organization which controls the Gaza Strip, following Israel's Protective Edge offensive in Gaza in 2014.

According to Lotan, Israel offered to return 18 militants, captivated in the 2014 war, and the bodies of 19 Hamas militants in exchange for the remains of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed in the same war and whose bodies are being held by Hamas.

The second offer included swapping Israeli and Palestinian civilians who crossed the fence between Israel and Gaza.

Avera Mengisto, an Israeli of Ethiopian descendent, 29, and another unnamed Bedouin citizen of Israel, both described as mentally ill, voluntarily crossed the security fence into Gaza in 2014. According to Israel, they have been held by Hamas, a claim which Hamas has never officially confirmed.

"Unprecedentedly, Hamas said no to both proposals and set a precondition," Lotan said at the conference. He said that Hamas agreed to sign a deal only if it would also include prisoners from the West Bank.

The two-month-long war in the Palestinian enclave claimed the lives of at least 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and over 70 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Endit