alwaght - Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, announced indirect negotiations with Israeli regime on exchanging Palestinian prisoners with Israeli captives held by the resistance group.
In an interview with Al Resalah, Osama Hamdan, head of Hamas's foreign affairs department, said that the resistance group has not discussed the number of prisoners it is holding or their condition until now and as a result forced the Israeli regime to eventually admit that captives are held by Hamas.
“There was no contact between Hamas and the Israeli regime regarding the captive Israelis,” Hamdan said.
The senior Hamas official added that Israeli regime is trying to gain scraps of information about the abducted Israelis via international intermediaries who have contacted Hamas on the issue.
Hamdan said Hamas's conditions for holding indirect negotiations on the abducted Israelis include having Israel fully admit the number of missing troops, as well as the release of the recaptured batch of Palestinian detainees.
He called on Israel to publicize the number of captives it knew were held by Hamas.
Head of Hamas's foreign affairs department emphasized that a negotiation on the prisoners is unrelated to the topic of a ceasefire with Israel, and he also negated reports in the Israeli press that talks had been held between Israel and Hamas regarding the abducted Israelis.
“Hamas has more bargaining chips that have not yet become public and which the Israelis will never dare disclose,” he noted.
