Sisi stalls Hamas deal to recover Israeli soldiers' corpses

A deal to return the corpses of two Israeli soldiers killed during Israel's summer assault on the Gaza Strip should be delayed to put more pressure on Hamas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is understood to have told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu reportedly asked Sisi to use his connections with Hamas to help recover the bodies, in return for easing restrictions on the blockade it has imposed on Gaza.

However, Sisi is alleged to have told Netanyahu not to hurry the issue as it could be used in the future to apply further pressure on the Gaza-based armed group.

The conversation is said to have taken place during a 28 November telephone call, high-level diplomatic sources told al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Netanyahu does not want another prisoner exchange with Hamas like the Egyptian-brokered deal in 2011 that released 1,027 prisoners in exchange for Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier Hamas held in captivity for five years, the sources reported.

Some 280 of those released were serving life sentences for planning or carrying out "terror" attacks.

The sources added that Sisi, whose country is the sole mediator between Hamas and Israel, was trying to block any communications over the bodies of the Israeli soldiers out of a desire to not give Hamas a political victory that could strengthen it.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and a consolidated Palestinian delegation were supposed to be held in Cairo, but Egypt requested the negotiations be delayed because of ongoing military activity in Sinai, adjacent to Gaza.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.