Hamas has refused to provide the Egyptian intelligence with any information about the status of the Israeli soldiers it holds in the Gaza Strip for more than three years, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Friday.

Hamas conditioned that Israel should first release some of the Palestinian prisoners who were released in what was labeled the “Shalit-Deal” in 2011 in which more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for the Israeli soldier Hamas abducted in 2006. Israel often re-arrests the released Palestinians after their release.

Hamas claims it has four alive Israelis, but Israeli media announced the two soldiers were killed in the 2014 military offensive against Gaza, and that the other two Israelis are mentally ill civilians who got lost near Gaza and ended up being arrested by Hamas. One of the four Israelis reported missing is originally Arab.

The Israeli newspaper Yed’out Ahranout reported that the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced his intention to make a request to his government to mediate in a possible swap deal with the Hamas movement, but Hamas insists that only Egypt can be the broker.

The American-based human rights group Human Rights Watch said in May 2017 that Hamas has abducted two mentally sick Israeli citizens who never served in the army, and that it should release them “unconditionally”.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 after it won a street battle with Fatah party and ousted its forces to the West Bank. Since then, Israel has imposed a restricted siege on the coastal enclave, and waged three military offensives that have left thousands killed, injured and internally displaced.