Yossi Melman, a security analyst from Israels Maariv Daily, said on Monday that the release of two Syrian prisoners, including Palestinian hostage Khamis Ahmad, could encourage both Israel and Hamas to reach a swap deal later on. “Israel can say it paid a cheap price and had protected its principles. But, also, Hamas can conclude that Israel relinquished one of its important principles by accepting to release two alive soldiers in return of one body remains,” he wrote. For his part, Alex Fishman, a veteran military analyst for Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth wrote that Israel asked Russia’s help in searching for its three soldiers killed during the 1982 Sultan Yaqub battle between Israel and Syria early in the Lebanon War. “However, Russia now found it could make a political gain from proposing this case in return of receiving Israeli’s consent in the Golan Height,” Fishman said. He added, “The Russian plan reached a deal allowing the Assad regime to control the Syrian Golan (the part of Golan not invaded by Israel) by avoiding bloodshed. For this end, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Israel for the first and last time in October 2017.” Fishman said at that time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not place obstacles against the deal. However, then-Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman demanded a real Russian pledge to remove Iran tens of kilometers away from the border. The analyst said that Lieberman later asked Russia’s help in finding the bodies of the three soldiers in light of Israeli information about the location where they were buried. “There was a Russian gesture regarding Israel’s softness in the Golan case,” he wrote, adding that Moscow at that time did not, in return, ask for the release of Syrian hostages in Israeli prisons. In Haaretz, Amos Harel notes that the release of the two soldiers will show that the road to more deals to return missing soldiers runs through Moscow. “No less important is the wider context. Russia is signaling its regional might to Israel and Syria. It’s Russia – not the US, which announced plans to withdraw the last of its military forces from Syria – that can achieve a negotiated settlement of the problems of both Damascus and Jerusalem,” he said. During the weekend, an Israeli official said Tel Aviv decided in the past few days to release two Syrian prisoners as a goodwill gesture, only after the return of the remains of Israeli soldier Zachary Baumel, who went missing in the Sultan Yaqub battle. A Syrian government source told Reuters that authorities had pressured Moscow to secure the prisoners’ release after the news of the Israeli soldier’s remains were being handed over. Israel’s Prison Service identified the two prisoners as Ahmed Khamis and Zidan Taweel.