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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Fatah to free 200 Hamas prisoners for Ramadan |
| 2009-08-24 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank plans to release 200 Hamas detainees as a reconciliation gesture to its rival during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a security official said on Sunday. The news comes a day after reconciliation talks between the rival Palestinian factions which had been set to resume next week in Egypt were delayed for another month. "There is a plan to release 200 detainees. We have released 90 so far, and hope to complete the release in the next two days," the official said on condition of anonymity. "They are all Hamas members." Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's government has been at odds with the Islamist Hamas movement since the group drove his loyalists from the Gaza Strip in a week of deadly clashes in June 2007. Since then Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party have traded accusations of arbitrary arrests and the mistreatment of prisoners, while rights groups have faulted both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-run government in Gaza. |
| Posted by:Fred |