The following is a statement by Khalil Al-Hayya, Deputy Head of Hamas in Gaza, to Al Jazeera concerning the six hostages killed in Gaza: 

The six [Israeli] prisoners (t.me/RNN_Backup/54954) and others could have been released to their families through a real exchange deal while still alive, but the insistence of the occupation army, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, and his extremist government is the reason these prisoners lost their lives (t.me/RNN_Backup/55040), along with dozens killed directly by the occupation through bombardment, targeting those who were with them, guarding them or living with them.

Some enemy prisoners were killed directly by live bullets from the occupation. Netanyahu and his team do not care about the prisoners. When Netanyahu was asked to choose between Philadelphia and the prisoners, he said, “Philadelphia is more important than the prisoners,” and this is publicly known.

Netanyahu displays bravado and attempts to portray false heroics here and there. These six were directly killed by the occupation and were also targeted in bombings and other actions, as were many before them. I provide here an example of one of them, an “israeli” youth who holds U.S. citizenship.

This young man, for purely humanitarian reasons requested by his family and through the intervention of many people via the Qatari brothers, asked for assurances about his life. We responded for humanitarian and political reasons, to push toward progress in concluding a real deal. We handed the Qatari brothers a video of this young man speaking with his mother and father.

The young man addressed the “israeli” government. After this video, and before some time, Al-Qassam announced that they had lost contact with him and those guarding him, clearly indicating that he was subjected to a direct strike by the “israeli” occupation. Since that day, nothing was known about his life, and today he was found dead with a group of others, which is clear evidence that the occupation targets these individuals.

All stages of negotiation have shown that Netanyahu is not interested in reaching a deal. Instead of sending his army to kill and destroy an entire area to recover two or three prisoners, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, he could have retrieved them through a real exchange deal, as we did last November.

In November and December, more than 115 to 125 “israelis” and foreigners returned through negotiations conducted with the desire, will and mediation of Qatar. This is an example of how, if Netanyahu truly wanted a prisoner exchange, we were immediately ready. We have shown great flexibility and made significant concessions to achieve an exchange deal, halt aggression and war, and end the suffering of the people.

The United States is responsible for obstructing the negotiations; it does not want to reach a deal and has withdrawn from its previous commitments. Briefly looking back, since last March there have been indirect negotiations between us, the mediator brothers and the occupation. We stopped at the points of a ceasefire, prisoner exchange, the withdrawal of the occupation and reconstruction.

Our demand for the exchange included high standards, such as 500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for every soldier and female soldier and 250 for others. When the mediators indicated there would be a significant opportunity if we showed flexibility in the exchange criteria, we immediately responded, reducing from 500 to 50 for the female soldiers and from 250 to 30 for the civilians.

The mediators, including those from the U.S., received this flexibility positively. But what did the occupation do? They disregarded it and began a new maneuver in May. In May, the Egyptian mediator brothers presented a complete agreement, to which we immediately agreed. The next day, what did the occupation do? They stormed the Rafah crossing, which remains closed.

This statement has been lightly edited.