Hamas Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip has released six prisoners from Fatah Party as part of a recent unity deal between the resistance movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The ministry made the announcement on Monday with Hamas security sources saying that the prisoners had been serving sentences for “security offences.”
Issa Nashar, an adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, called on acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to reciprocate after the move.
He said in a statement that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority should “provide a positive atmosphere for reconciliation and stop the practices of (his) security services.”
Hamas says dozens of its activists are in West Bank prisons.
Some 3,000 Palestinian police personnel are also expected to be transferred from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip as part of the unity deal.
Hamas Secretary General Abd al-Salam Siyam said on Sunday that the two sides “made a strategic decision to move on with reconciliation and so they will do what is needed to implement the agreement.”
On April 23, Hamas and the PLO, which includes Fatah Party, pledged to bury their differences and form a unity government. Under the long-awaited deal, Hamas and Fatah are to establish the unity government within five weeks and hold national elections six months later.
The Israeli regime reacted by canceling the so-called peace talks with the Palestinian Authority and threatening sanctions against it.
The besieged Gaza strip is administered by Hamas while the Palestinian Authority governs parts of the West Bank.
