An official in the Hamas terrorist organization on Tuesday denied reports in Israel of significant progress in the negotiations being conducted through mediators on a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.
The official claimed that, through a media campaign on the exchange deal, Israel is striving to evade the demands that Hamas imposed, to mislead the families of the missing Israelis and to negatively impact the morale of the Palestinian Arab prisoners and their families.
He urged the public not to rely on the reports in the "Zionist" media, stating that if there is progress on this issue, Hamas will provide an update.
The four Israelis missing in Gaza are IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed during 2014's Operation Protective Edge, and Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, civilians suffering from mental illness who crossed into Gaza by mistake.
Recently, Hamas said that its negotiations for a prisoner release deal are still ongoing, though before that the group had denied that negotiations were taking place with Israel regarding a possible prisoner swap.
Other recent reports said that Hamas may be willing to offer Israel information on four Israelis missing in Gaza, if Israel agrees to the precondition of releasing 250 convicted terrorists.