The Hamas terror group denies reports in Palestinian media that indirect talks with Israel include negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that would see Palestinian terror convicts released in exchange for two Israeli citizens and the bodies of two IDF soldiers believed to be held in the Gaza Strip.
According to Dunya al-Watan, a news site in Gaza, senior Hamas member Ismail Radwan says the talks also are not focusing on a long-term ceasefire deal, but rather on stabilizing the truce agreed on after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the current conditions of Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails and the status of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.
Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas website)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says the group has conveyed — through Egyptian mediators — three demands regarding the prisoners, who have rioted recently, attacked guards and are threatening to start a hunger strike which would also see them stop drinking water.
The demands are that Israel stop blocking cellphone reception in the jails, stop the Israel Prisons Service’s “punishing” of security prisoners, and renew family visits.
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