Senior MK calls to swap suspects’ bodies for IDF soldiers’ remains

Knesset Defense Committee chair Ze’ev Elkin said Israel should not return the bodies of the two suspected terrorists killed in Hebron Tuesday morning until the bodies of two soldiers slain in Gaza are returned.

Elkin, a senior Likud lawmaker and former deputy foreign minister, spoke shortly after the IDF confirmed that Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha were both killed during an arrest attempt early on Tuesday.

He said that their bodies should be held until those of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, two IDF combat soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge, are returned to Israel by Hamas.

However, a Palestinian official told Israeli news source Ynet that the bodies of Kawasme and Abu Aysha had already been turned over to their families, and their funerals will take place in Hebron in later Tuesday.

The return of the bodies of the two IDF soldiers is expected to be high on the list of Israeli demands as indirect talks with Hamas and other Palestinian factions kick off in Egypt Tuesday.

The long-term ceasefire talks are taking place nearly a month after Israel and Hamas wrapped up a 50-day war partially sparked by the abduction and killing of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel on June 12.

Israeli officials said earlier this week that Israel’s two first demands at the upcoming indirect talks with the Palestinians in Cairo will be that Hamas return the bodies of Goldin and Shaul, and that Hamas agree to disarm and have Gaza demilitarized.

Kawasme, 29, and Abu Aysha, 32, were the primary suspects in the murders of three Israeli teens earlier this summer.

At around 3 a.m. Tuesday, an IDF detachment descended on the Hebron house where the suspects were believed to be hiding and began firing.

The IDF said the two were killed in a firefight, and Hamas released a statement also confirming the two died.