Tel Aviv vows to free Israelis held by Hamas

JERUSALEM

Israel has vowed to do everything in its power to free Israelis held captive by Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, released an audio in Hebrew of an Israeli soldier held by the Palestinian group. In the audio, the soldier appeals to the Israeli government to work for his release.

Yaron Blum, the Israeli government’s coordinator for prisoners and missing persons, described the audio as a “cheap manipulation" by Hamas.
"Israel is well aware of the fact that the two soldiers: Hadar Goldin and Shaul Oron were dead," Blum said.

Hamas says it is holding four Israelis, two of them were caught during the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, but without disclosing any information about their fate or health conditions. The other two are believed to have entered Gaza in unclear conditions in the past years.

Israeli Channel 20 considered the Hamas audio as "psychological warfare against Israel."

The tape was aired on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television within a documentary on a prisoner swap deal in 2011 between Israel and Hamas under which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who spent five years in Hamas captivity, was released.

In the program, the deputy chief for the Qassam Brigades, Marwan Issa, spoke for the first time in an interview and vowed to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Hamas, however, didn't reveal the name of the soldier, whose voice appeared in the tape.

Israel is holding 4,650 Palestinians in its jails, including 39 women, 180 children and around 500 administrative detainees.

Egypt is leading efforts to broker a new prisoner swap agreement between Hamas and Israel, following last month’s fighting in the Gaza Strip, in which at least 260 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured. Thirteen Israelis were also killed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara