By Xinhua
Gaza : European sides have started to mediate between Hamas and Israel to achieve a prisoner exchange deal after Egypt stopped its efforts on the issue, an aide for Hamas leader Ismail Haneya said Monday.
“There are European sides moving to activate and accelerate the file of prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel,” Haneya’s political advisor Ahmed Yousef told reporters in Gaza.
Egypt had been mediating a prisoner swap deal since Hamas and two other factions kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
But Egypt has withdrawn its representative mission from Gaza after Hamas took over the territory from forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah three months ago.
Meanwhile, Yousef reaffirmed that the captive corporal was in good health but he did not reveal any more information on his condition.
He also voiced concerns about the “extent of Israeli commitment to the conditions outlined by Hamas and the other factions despite the Israeli interest in reviving the case.”
“We have submitted names of 1,000 prisoners from all factions in addition to Arab inmates in Israeli jails … We are waiting for the Israeli answer,” Yousef concluded.