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2024-02-01 19:35:00

01 FEB 2024 – 18:44

Hamas demands release of high-ranking prisoners to reach truce

A delegation of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which is in Cairo to discuss a possible truce, demands the release of several high-ranking Palestinian prisoners, both its own and the Palestinian Fatah movement, sources familiar with the conversations informed EFE. According to the informants, who asked not to be identified, the Hamas delegation headed by the leader of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, has conveyed this demand to the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel, as one of the requirements to give the approval of the proposal for a truce. The Islamist movement has not yet given a response to the agreement proposal presented by Qatar for a new truce and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, according to sources. They noted that Hamas demands the release of Marwan Barghouti, a senior Palestinian Fatah leader imprisoned for carrying out attacks against Israelis; as well as the prominent leader Ahmed Saadat, former secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and imprisoned by Israel after being accused of planning the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehevam Zeevi in ​​2001.