GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A senior Hamas leader told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that recent talks between the Hamas leadership and several mediating countries — which he did not name and which Hamas’ politburo head Ismail Haniyeh visited on his foreign tour that began Dec. 7 — aimed to outline a new prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas acknowledged back in 2016 that it is holding four Israelis, including soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, whom Israel believes are dead. Israel says the soldiers were killed in the 2014 war on Gaza. Hamas, meanwhile, refuses to reveal their fate as well as that of the other two Israelis — citizens Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, and Hisham al-Sayed, an Arab — who both willingly entered the Gaza Strip in 2014.

The source, who is also a member of Hamas’ politburo, added, “The main provision of the deal is for Israel to release all 50 Palestinians who were re-arrested after their release as per the [2011] Gilad Shalit deal and to include the names of detainees that it previously refused to release as per the deal. These include Marwan Barghouti, member of Fatah’s Central Committee and secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Saadat.”

However, the source said Israel turned down Hamas’ conditions, namely the inclusion of Barghouti in the next exchange deal, which pushed Hamas to suspend talks about the case. According to the source, the mediating countries vowed to pressure Israel into accepting those demands.