Senior Hamas official Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said on Saturday that there was no distinction between Palestinian Authority prisoners and Hamas would not accept any swap deal without the release of long-sentenced prisoners. According to the Palesinian Information Center report, Zahhar pointed out that Hamas had previously been able to break many Israeli taboos during prisoner swap negotiations.
Zahhar affirmed that Hamas is insistent on the release of prisoners under age 18, lawmakers and ministers among those it demands to be released in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. He stated that Israel agreed to release 450 prisoners from Hamas’ list in the first batch and in the event that this swap deal was concluded, a possible list of 550 other prisoners would be submitted for Hamas to consider.