GAZA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement said Friday that it won't give the information of the two missing Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip until Israel release dozens of Palestinian prisoners.
"The soldiers of the Israeli occupation won't see the light until Israel pays the price," said Khalil al-Hayya, deputy Hamas chief in Gaza.
He made the remarks to prayers in a mosque for the funeral of a Hamas militant killed in an Israeli air raid in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, saying that the missing soldiers are "in the grip of Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades."
Hamas militants captured the two soldiers, Hadar Golden and Oran Shaol in 2014, with neither Hamas nor Israel saying if they are dead or alive.
Hamas insisted it won't give any free information of the two soldiers before Israel releases dozens of Palestinian prisoners according to a prisoners swap deal, brokered by Egypt in 2011 between Hamas and Israel.
Meanwhile, al-Hayya stressed that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip won't stop releasing arson kites and balloons into Israel, and they won't stop the "Great March of Return," which began on March 30.
Organizers of the rallies, including Hamas, had repeatedly announced that the marches won't stop before Israel ends the tight blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, said in a press statement that since March 30, the Israeli army has killed 142 Palestinians, including two children, and wounded more than 16,000.
