Khalid Mashal, former Chief of Hamas' Political Bureau, called in an interview with Hadarat for Political and Strategic Studies for reviving the prisoners' issue at political, media, popular and diplomatic levels regionally and internationally.  

He said that Hamas has been working on having the prisoners released as what happened in the prisoner swap deal in 2011, showing spiritual and financial support to the prisoners and their families, and becoming part of the prisoners' struggles and battles inside the prisons.

Mashal said that the prisoners may be statistics to some countries, but to them it is a just cause that dictates heroism, struggle and sufferings. He emphasized that all resistance factions are concerned with having the prisoners obtain their rights and to survive in the prisons the best way possible until their release.

Mashal said that what Hamas had been doing for the prisoners is not enough if compared with the intended aim (i.e. ensuring the prisoners' freedom and forcing the occupation to release them). However, when the endeavors are compared with the current difficult situation, the efforts of the movement have been quite good.