GAZA, Palestine, Dec 14 (NNN-WAFA) – A high-ranking Islamic Hamas movement official, said that, his movement will release captive Israeli soldiers only through a comprehensive swap deal.
“Any captive Israeli soldier won’t be released, until all Palestinians, imprisoned in Israeli jails are freed,” said Fathi Hammad, adding, Hamas “is seeking to capture more soldiers, in case Israel postpones a swap deal.”
Two years ago, Hamas armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, announced, it held four Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, without saying anything about their fate.
Israel announced that, two of the four Israelis are soldiers and they were killed during the large-scale Israeli army offensive that was waged on the Gaza Strip for 50 days in the summer of 2014.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, five Palestinian demonstrators were shot, during clashes that broke out with Israeli soldiers in the eastern Gaza Strip.
According to the figures of the Health Ministry in Gaza, since the outbreak of the rallies, the Israeli army shot dead 313 Palestinian demonstrators and wounded more than 18,000 by live ammunition.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Popular Committee to Challenge the Israeli Siege said, there are 250,000 Palestinians who are unemployed and only 20 percent of the industry sector in Gaza are operating.
Jamal al-Khoudari, the committee’s chairman, said, the rates of unemployment in the Gaza Strip are growing, due to the Israeli blockade that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
“Israel has been restricting the movement of export and import and mounted its assaults on all sectors in the Gaza Strip,” he said, adding that “the commercial and industrial lives in the Gaza Strip are totally paralysed.”
Al-Khoudari warned, there is a severe lack of job opportunities in the Gaza Strip, and the absence of practical solutions to end the imposed Israeli blockade, which weaken the entire economy in the territory.”– NNN-WAFA
