On Thursday, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzook announced that the group was poised to resume indirect ceasefire negotiations with Israel at the end of October.
Marzook noted that while talks would likely touch on the topic of conducting a prisoner exchange for the remains of Israeli soldiers, it is not a discussion which Hamas is currently open to having. Instead, Hamas insists the talks must solely focus on the rehabilitation of Gaza, to which over $5.4 billion has already been pledged from countries including Qatar, the European Union and the United States. Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh also revealed that Israel had agreed to allow a Turkish naval power station to dock off the coast of Gaza and provide electricity to the Strip while Gaza’s own power station is repaired.
While Hamas insists that any exchange must be negotiated separately from Gaza’s reconstruction, Israel will likely use the opportunity to push for the return of the bodies of two IDF soldiers- 2nd Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul- who were killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
A Jordanian official of the Muslim Brotherhood encouraged Hamas to include demands for the release of the approximately 20-25 Jordanian prisoners currently held by Israel.
In 2011, Israel released 1,027 prisoners for the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas in June of 2006. Early this June, the Knesset debated a number of new bills that advanced several days before the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel. The first bill, which was approved by the government and passed a preliminary reading, enables a judge to grant a life sentence to a prisoner without allowing the possibility of future clemency, effectively undermining the government’s ability to trade such prisoners in future political swaps.
The second bill proposes that Israel release no more than one terrorist for one soldier, that no prisoners be released for bodies, that the terrorist organization with which Israel is negotiating only be allowed to choose prisoners from a pre-selected list, and that, in the event that the government decides to engage in a prisoner swap to advance peace negotiations, no more than 10 prisoners be released without receiving an Israeli soldier in return.