Zionist entity releases six Hamas MPs

The Zionist entity on Monday released six Palestinian MPs from the democratically elected Hamas movement who were kidnapped in 2006, officials said.

A seventh MP was freed late Sunday, bringing to 31 the total number of Hamas lawmakers released in recent months, including parliamentary speaker Aziz al-Dweik, who was freed in June.

A spokeswoman for the Zionist Prisons Authority said the six lawmakers were released on Monday because the period of their administrative detention had expired. None of the MPs was charged with anything.

The MPs were among the more than 60 Hamas elected officials, including ministers, deputies and mayors, who were kidnapped by the Zionist entity following the January 2006 elections.

Fifteen of the elected officials remain in capture, according to Palestinian officials.

One of the Hamas MPs freed on Monday said the kidnapping were part of a Zionist attempt to prevent parliament from functioning.

“This confirms what we have said, that the campaign of kidnapping was basically intended to strike the Legislative Council and not for security as the Zionist entity had said,” freed Hamas MP Mahmud al-Ramahi said.

Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in January 2006, the first it contested, securing 74 seats in the 132-legislature and routing long-dominant Fatah that got only 45.