Hamas to release detained Fatah journalists

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RAMALLAH: The Committee of Public Freedoms, an organization created to foster the national reunification of Palestine, has secured the release of six journalists detained in Gaza.

According to Ma’an News, the committee obtained agreements from Gaza security officials guaranteeing the release. A few were released on Sunday night.
The announcement was made by Khaled Al-Batsh, a member of the Committee of Public Freedoms and a senior official in the Islamic Jihad movement.

Al-Batsh is known for his denial of the possibility of a two-state solution. He maintains that all the land of Israel and Palestine is Islamic and belongs to the Palestinian nation.

The move cause alarm between the occupied West Bank and the Gaza strip who started working towards reunification since 2011 and increased efforts after the recognition of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

In an agreement struck between the two factions in 2011, politically motivated arrests and the harassment of journalists were to stop. The committee was formed to address these issues, as well as those of political prisoners, passports, travel bans and freedom of political expression.

The committee has been inactive for nearly a year due to the fact that none of its recommendations on how to address these concerns were implemented.

In keeping with this trend, Hamas recently rounded up and arrested journalists and activists suspected of links to Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The reason given for their arrest was “sabotaging of communal peace”.

After this success, the committee has decided to being discussion on how to restart their work concerning national unity.

BN