Hamas’s deputy leader Mousa Abu Marzouk affirmed that his group is seeking to achieve a "respectable" exchange deal that would release a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

Abu Marzouk's statements came in an interview with the Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV channel on Wednesday evening.

The senior Hamas official expressed hope that there will be quick results as "every day that passes on the prisoners, regardless of their political affiliation, will only increase our determination to free them."

"We have not yet reached any final agreement or exchange deal through the indirect negotiations with the occupation," he said.

"But we are confident that we will achieve a respectable, honorable, humanitarian, and national exchange deal that will release a large number of Palestinian prisoners."

Freeing the sick, elderly, children, and female prisoners will be on our top priorities, in addition to the Arab prisoners especially our Jordanian brothers, all national and resistance leaders, and the six prisoners who escaped the Gilboa prison, according to his statements.

In 2011, Egypt brokered a prisoners' exchange deal between the zionist occupation regime and Hamas, by which Hamas freed the israeli corporal Gilad Shalit while Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinians from its prisons. (ILKHA)