Hamas vows to reach prisoners' swap deal with Israel

GAZA: The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has vowed to reach a prisoners' swap deal with Israel to release the Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails.

Hamas's pledge was made during a rally held before the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza city to mark the sole prisoner swap deal reached between the movement and Israel 11 years ago, Xinhua news agency reported.

In 2011, Egypt brokered a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in which Hamas released Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, who was taken captive by the movement in Gaza in 2006, in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

During the rally, participants carried pictures of Palestinians still imprisoned in Israeli jails. Waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans, the participants called for the release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners from Israeli prisons.

In 2016, Hamas announced that it was keeping four Israeli captives without specifying their fate. Israel said two of them were already killed.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club Association announced that the Israeli authorities had arrested 5,300 Palestinians in the West Bank since January, including 111 women and 620 children, and 1,610 under administrative detentions.