The ministry of prisoner affairs in Gaza called Saturday for the release of all ex-prisoners and resistance fighters from the Palestinian Authority prisons in the West Bank.
The fresh statement becomes especially significant after the signing of a unity deal between ruling parties Fatah and Hamas.
”It is no longer acceptable to retain the more than 200 ex-prisoners currently being held in the prisons of the security agencies in the West Bank if there are in fact genuine intentions behind the reconciliation,” the statement says.
”We shouldn't have to wait for committees to be formed for that purpose. They should be immediately and unconditionally released, as they are political prisoners, and some of them have been arrested just hours or days after leaving the Israeli prisons.”
The ministry expressed shock after calls were made to re-open prisoner organizations that were closed in the Gaza Strip ”for legal reasons, and not political reasons”, yet the prisoners taken by security services in the West Bank were left unaddressed.
Separately, reconciliation protection coalition formed in the wake of the historic Fatah-Hamas deal reported Monday some violations against the interests of the unity deal.
The coalition made several observations, including several campaigns launched to investigate Hamas's men in Bethlehem and Nablus.
Hamas flags were also removed from several mosques in northern West Bank in particular, the report says, adding that security service agents had heavy presence in West Bank marches in order to monitor them. The report concludes that the act conflicted to the spirit of reconciliation.
