What motivated the speaker of Hamas' military arm on April 1, when he showed photographs of four Israelis — two soldiers killed in Operation Protective Edge and two civilians currently held prisoner by Hamas — on TV? Hamas ostensibly wanted to deny that it was engaged in negotiations over the fate of two bodies and two civilian hostages. In fact, the situation is far more complex.
Today, Hamas still has the bodies of Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul. It also holds two civilians who crossed the border from Israel into Gaza: Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayyad, a resident of the Bedouin settlement of Hura. At the request of his family, the media was banned from releasing the young Bedouin's name. Once Hamas showed his name and photo on air, however, his father spoke out, saying that his son is mentally ill and in need of treatment.
For the longest time, Hamas denied possession of Mengistu or Sayyad, apparently in an attempt to get Israel to pay for information about their whereabouts. In response, Israel made it clear that it had no intention of paying an excessive price for the bodies of two soldiers and for the two civilians who crossed the border on their own volition. Hamas blinked first, admitting that it had the two civilians and that it wanted to move forward with a prisoner exchange.
At first, messages between Israel and Hamas were relayed via Ghazi Hamad and Gershon Baskin, the two men who helped secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, as well as other channels, including emissaries from the European Union and Egypt. Netanyahu himself raised the issue with the German chancellor, and it was discussed last month when the Hamas delegation visited Egypt. Al-Monitor has learned that the members of the delegation, headed by Mahmoud az-Zahar, demanded the release of hundreds of prisoners currently held in Israeli jails. Israel responded that it would only be willing to release prisoners in humanitarian cases, such as ailing or elderly prisoners who have served most of their sentences and are not considered to have blood on their hands.
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