RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority has released 38 members of the Hamas movement in a bid to boost Egypt’s efforts to bring about reconciliation between Fatah and the movement, a senior Palestinian security official said yesterday.
The official, who did not want to be named, said the move is part of “the Palestinian leadership’s efforts to help make the reconciliation attempt successful.”
Last year, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas responded by firing the Hamas-led administration and forming a new government based in the West Bank.
In September, Egyptian security officials held separate talks with leaders of 13 Palestinian factions for reconciliation. The Egyptian mediators met with a Fatah delegation earlier in the week and will meet a Hamas delegation on Oct. 8.
Meanwhile, tension gripped the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday before the funeral of Shadi Mohammed Shahin, a Fatah member who died two days ago at a Jericho prison run by the Palestinian intelligence service.
Two days ago, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service announced that Shahin had died a natural death, but his family members and Ramallah-based Fatah members claimed that he was tortured by intelligence officials and executed.
Shahin was arrested in 2002 and was charged with shooting at former Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr, who now serves as the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s ambassador to Egypt and is considered one of Abbas’ close advisers.
Shortly after the shooting incident, which left Amr with a serious injury to his leg, Shahin was arrested by Israel. Two days after his release from an Israeli jail, he was arrested by the Palestinian intelligence service and kept in a Jericho prison. Shahin’s family has demanded an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.
Jihad Tommalaih, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that the family asked the council “to form a special and impartial committee to probe into Shahin’s death in prison.”
Amr was shot when tension between Palestinian Authority officials and former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was high following the Israeli siege of the Palestinian Authority headquarters, known as the Muqata’a compound.
