GAZA CITY -- The deputy head of Hamas said Friday that no negotiations would be possible with Israel before detainees who were re-arrested last summer despite being released in the 2011 Shalit deal were freed.
Ismail Haniyeh also said the movement's armed wing -- the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades -- has gained more power, adding that Palestinians "will not let go of our right to exist."
"No one on earth can pass the Palestinian resistance and Hamas," he said in a speech marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Friday's address is the second time in the past week that the movement has stipulated potential exchanges with Israel on the release of Palestinian detainees.
Haniyeh pointed out that Israel had re-arrested at least 54 of the more than 1,000 prisoners freed in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid by Gaza militants in 2006.
"We have told all the mediators who have mobilized to discuss a new exchange that there won't be any negotiations before the release of all those Israel detained from among the Shalit deal group," he said.
"There will be no talks without their unconditional release."
Haniyeh did not elaborate on what new exchange was being mooted.
Hamas has long acknowledged holding body parts of two Israeli soldiers killed during last summer's conflict in Gaza.
However, the movement has not commented on Israel's allegation that Hamas is also holding two of its citizens in Gaza.
Israel's defense ministry said last week that an Israeli of Ethiopian descent "is being held against his will by Hamas in Gaza," as well as a Palestinian Bedouin citizen of Israel, without releasing further information.
The two are believed to have been held in Gaza since September and April respectively, but the information was put under a gag order by Israeli authorities until last week.
Israeli defense officials told Israeli media at the time that Israel "does not intend to free Palestinian prisoners" in exchange for the two Israeli citizens purportedly being held.
Despite Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners in the 2011 Gilad Shalit swap, several of those released were re-arrested during an Israeli detention campaign during the summer of 2014 termed "Operation Brother's Keeper."
The campaign was allegedly carried out in search of three missing teenage settlers last summer and left hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, including several Hamas-affiliated members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Talk of a potential prisoner exchange comes after news last month that Israel and Hamas had reportedly been holding an indirect exchange for cementing a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip.
The exchanges are believed to have taken place through a number of Arab and European channels in a bid to firm up a ceasefire agreement that took hold last August, ending a 50-day war in Gaza.
The Egyptian-brokered truce came into effect on August 26, with the sides pledging to resume indirect contacts within a month to pin down a lasting ceasefire and discuss crunch issues.
Follow-up talks were delayed several times and never formally resumed. Sporadic rocket fire has come from the Gaza Strip in recent months and near-daily incursions by Israeli forces along the buffer-zone have left several dead and injured since the end of the war. (maannews)
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