israel is reportedly holding talks with Hamas, an Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, in a bid to negotiate the release of two Israeli citizens and the bodies of two IDF soldiers kidnapped in 2014. Although reports suggest that a deal is looming, a Gaza-based political analyst is doubtful the sides will manage to bridge between their gaps.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that the Islamic group was ready for indirect talks with israel in a bid to reach a prisoners' swap deal with the Jewish state.
The group that controls the Gaza Strip is reportedly holding two Israeli citizens as well as the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014 during Israel's operation Protective Edge.
The deal that's been negotiated with the help of Egyptian intelligence stipulates that at first, Israel would release dozens of the elderly, sick, teenage and female prisoners in exchange for information on the Israeli citizens believed to be held by Hamas, similar to what was done in 2009 when Tel Aviv freed 25 inmates in exchange for a video of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by the Islamic group in 2006.
Finally, the militants would provide Israel with a list of inmates — sentenced to life imprisonment in Israeli jails — and would demand the Jewish state to swap them for the bodies of the slain soldiers.
Mission Impossible?
But Mkhaimer Abu Seada, a Gaza-based political analyst, said it was highly unlikely for these negotiations to end up in an inked deal.
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