Against the backdrop of a recent serious escalation of the security threat along Israel's southern border, Israeli media published reports on negotiations for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. Leaks about the negotiations, sourced to spokesmen from both sides, were intended to put pressure on the opposing side and to present their red lines regarding any potential deal. Both sides now share a desire to reach a deal.
Hamas is in crisis and therefore wants to show the people of Gaza that it has accomplished something. Meanwhile in Israel, the families of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war, are intensely pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the members of his government to bring that episode to an end by obtaining the return of their sons' bodies, so they can give them proper burials.
Talk about a potential prisoner exchange has been coupled with the tightening of Israel's closure policy toward Gaza as well as toward Hamas prisoners in Israel. All of this is intended to coerce Hamas to agree to Israel's terms for a deal. The result thus far, however, has been an escalation in tensions in the south, culminating in the firing of a rocket at Israel and the bombing of dozens of Hamas targets by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in retaliation on Feb. 6.
Since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge against Gaza in 2014, Israel has said that it will not release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the bodies of Goldin and Shaul. Hamas, however, is demanding that the deal be broad and comprehensive and that the release of the two fallen soldiers and two Israeli civilians who crossed into Gaza, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayyad, depends on the Palestinian prisoners released. Amos Harel of Haaretz reported on Feb. 2 that Israel has a bargaining chip of its own in its negotiations with Hamas: It holds Bilal Ruzaina, the emotionally disturbed brother of Mustafa Ruzaina, head of internal security for Hamas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and a proposal for a prisoner exchange on humanitarian grounds has been relayed to Hamas.
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