The Hamas movement on Sunday raised the prospect of exchanging an Israeli soldier declared dead in the territory’s 2014 war in return for Palestinian prisoners.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ military arm, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said that “the resistance has... cards in its hands that will force the enemy to release you,” referring to prisoners in Israeli jail.
Israeli soldiers, dead or alive, have in the past proved valuable bargaining chips. The bodies of two soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, are believed to be held by Hamas, which has not clarified their fate.
On Friday, the movement’s Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh said Qassam Brigades were preparing “for any future clashes with the Zionist enemy,” including by building tunnels on the border with Israel.
He said a collapsed tunnel that killed seven militants in Gaza last week was like the one used to capture Shaul and that led to the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
The tunnels were “strategic weapons” against Israel, Haniya said, adding that Hamas fighters were also training and acquiring “all the means to fight and resist.”
Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Haya drove the point home on Sunday.

Source: Arab News