Mishaal: Fatah cadres departure from Gaza linked to release of Hamas detainees

Mishaal: Fatah cadres departure from Gaza linked to release of Hamas detainees

[ 01/08/2009 - 03:45 PM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Khaled Mishaal, the political bureau chairman of Hamas, has asserted that the Fatah leaders in Gaza Strip would be allowed out of it to attend their factions' general congress only when Hamas detainees in the West Bank are released.

Mishaal told the semi-official Egyptian daily Al-Ahram published on Saturday that there was no way his Movement would retract this stand.

He charged former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas with obstructing the exchange by his insistence on not releasing any of the Hamas cadres from the West Bank jails.

Contacts were made by the Turkish and Russian leaderships to allow Fatah cadres to attend their factions' meeting, the Hamas leader said, adding that there was no mediation in this respect. He underlined that Egypt is the sole party entrusted with the mediation file in the Palestinian arena.

Ghussain: Citizens illegally traveling will be prosecuted

Ihab Al-Ghussain, the spokesman for the interior ministry, on Saturday underlined that any citizen illegally traveling outside the Strip or in coordination with the IOA would stand trial

Haneyya: The next round of dialog may not be held due to the persistent arrests

Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya ruled out Friday the possibility of holding the next round of the inter-Palestinian dialog in light of the ongoing political arrests in the West Bank.

Families of West Bank detainees attach hope to Hamas's conditions on Fatah

[ 31/07/2009 - 04:17 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Families of more than 1,100 Palestinian political detainees in Mahmoud Abbas's jails in the West Bank have attached big hope on the condition made by Hamas Movement to release all political detainees before Fatah cadres in Gaza could attend sixth conference.

Hamas Movement took stern and clear-cut stand that it won't allow Fatah cadres in Gaza Strip to leave to Bethlehem to attend the sixth congress of Fatah unless Fatah releases all political detainees in the West Bank.

According to the disgruntled families, the way in which Fatah and the PA security forces deal with the Palestinian people tarnishes the image of the Palestinian people and badly affects the just Palestinian cause.

They called on Hamas Movement to remain steadfast on that condition and not to give it up, urging Fatah faction to return to the Palestinian mainstream and to sincerely work to restore the Palestinian national unity.

"We all believe that the hour of releasing our sons from jails is close after Hamas put that condition" said Abu Mohammed Bilal, father of one of the detainees in Beitonia jail.

Mahmoud Abdul Khaleq, father of another detainee in Junaid prison, asserted that torture sessions and humiliation inside the jails of Abbas were "unaccepted and unbelievable", adding that the only crime of those detainees was they want to liberate their country from the Zionist occupation.

He also explained that "the Palestinian policeman who tortures his fellow Palestinian was brain-washed under the pressure and temptation of money that made him unable to comprehend the degree of pain he inflicts on his Palestinian brother".

Moreover, Abdul Khaleq opined that the next congress of Fatah would tighten the grip of Abbas and Mohammed Dahalan on the faction, and would turn it into a faction without national principles and without resistance that would easily sell Palestine.

For his part, Azzam Al-Ahmad, the chairman of Fatah's parliamentary bloc in the PLC, threatened to take aggressive actions against Hamas's leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank if Fatah cadres were blocked from leaving the Gaza Strip to attend the conference.

Hamas's lawmakers in the West Bank confirmed they have received threats from Abbas's militia of targeting and kidnapping them if Fatah members in Gaza didn’t attend the Bethlehem meeting.