BICOM

Hamas have rejected two separate proposals to return the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians held alive in the Gaza Strip, according to one Israeli official.

Lior Lotan, who made the revelation at a conference in Herzliya, is the Israeli official in charge of issues concerning prisoners and missing persons. He said that Israel had offered to return 18 Gazan prisoners and the bodies of 19 others, who had been killed during Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014. In return, Hamas would return the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two Israeli soldiers who were both killed during the conflict. Lotan said that Hamas had demanded the release of prisoners unconnected to Operation Protective Edge.

In addition, Lotan explained that Israel had offered to return dozens of Gazans who have crossed illegally into Israel in return for releasing three Israeli citizens who wandered across the Gaza border of their own accord. Avera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Jumaa Abu-Ghanima entered Gaza in 2015 and 2016 and all are thought to suffer from mental health issues.

Lotan said that Hamas’ rejection went against the “norms throughout the world at the end of a confrontation”. He added: “In an unprecedented fashion, Hamas responded negatively to the [Israeli] proposal and laid down preconditions… We cannot accept these preconditions.”

However, Hamas denied that an offer had been made. A senior Hamas official told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet that Lotan’s claims “were not worth referring to”.

The families of Goldin, Shaul and Mengistu are campaigning for Israel’s government to do more to resolve the situation. They have called for a tightening of the conditions of Hamas prisoners in Israeli detention and criticised the recent reconciliation deal with Turkey for the absence of any reference to the return of their family members.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the World Bank said yesterday that less than half the money pledged by the international community for Gaza’s reconstruction following Operation Protective Edge has been disbursed.