Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to kidnap more Israelis on Wednesday if a prisoner deal is not reached.
“A prisoner-exchange deal has a known price. Israel knows that. Either we will come to a respectable deal, or we will go to the other option, which is increasing our loot. Our arm is long,” Haniyeh said according to a Ynet report.
Despite recent reports about the possibility of such an arrangement between Israel and Hamas, the reality is that there is no single, strong Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip who is free to make such decisions, wrote Pinhas Inbari, a veteran Arab-affairs correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Reports about a pending prisoner-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas are gaining momentum.
According to Palestinian sources in Ramallah, however, major obstacles remain in the way, particularly within Hamas, said Inbari.
