Surprisingly, Hamas revealed on Monday afternoon that the Israeli soldier Oron Shaul held in Gaza is alive, local Palestinian news agency Safa reported.
The news agency, which is very close to Hamas, reported an anonymous source saying that Shaul watched the funeral of his father, who died on Friday.
According to the sources, the soldier “fainted” when he saw his father’s body being carried by people, knowing that it was the last time he would see him.
Safa said that the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, gave no more details, but it stressed that the source is “credible.”
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli officials have always referred to their soldiers held in Gaza in 2014 as bodies, meaning that they were killed during the offensive.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that he would exert much efforts to “recover the bodies” of Oron Shaul and Hadar Golden.
Two days earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman also pledged to exert much efforts to recover the “bodies.”
Hamas denied any serious efforts being done to reach a deal to release them, stressing that any deal must include the release of Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli jails.
It also refused to give details whether the soldiers are alive or dead, hoping to get some gains over any piece of information, but it is believed that it wanted to put the Israeli officials under more pressure to go ahead in this issue.
The families and the Israeli public and opposition would mobilise for the public opinion and political echelon towards making progress in this regard.
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