For the first time since taking control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas consented to Israel’s request that an Israeli figure enter the coastal enclave for talks with its leaders on the possibility of reaching a prisoner swap deal, after such talks had been stalled for eight months.
Hamas' move came after its military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, posted a video on June 28 of Hisham al-Sayed, an Israeli citizen held prisoner inside Gaza, in which he is seen lying in a hospital bed and connected to a ventilator.