Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh says that if Israel does not come to a prisoner accord with the terror group, it will kidnap more Israelis.“We have four prisoners, and if Israel is not convinced by that, then we will add to our stash,” Haniyeh says in comments circulated in official Hamas media.
So what's new?
2004:
Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of the political leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, confirmed that his movement is determined to free the Palestinian prisoners, through the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers.
2007:
Yesterday, a Hamas official threatened to kidnap more Israeli soldiers to force the Israeli authorities to release Palestinian prisoners.
2010:
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) threatened to kidnap more Israeli soldiers if the international community did not intervene to solve the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the Hamas political bureau, threatened today, Thursday, to kidnap Israeli soldiers and settlers as long as the heroic prisoners remain in the prisons of the Israeli occupation.
2021:
The Hebrew Kan channel revealed on Wednesday evening that Hamas has threatened to resume kidnappings and capture of Israeli soldiers if a new deal fails. According to the Hebrew channel, a senior Hamas official, Khaled Meshaal, threatened to kidnap new Israelis if Israel refused to release heavy prisoners in a new dea
Kidnapping is a core strategy of Hamas and has been since at least 1989. After the Gilad Shalit deal, they redoubled their efforts to kidnap Israelis. Hamas praised and then boasted about the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel who were then murdered in 2014. A primary goal in the 2014 war was to abduct Israeli soldiers.
There is nothing new here.