Egypt has secured the release of 550 members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party in a prisoners swap it mediated between Israel and Hamas, an Egyptian diplomat said on Friday. Egypt succeeded in persuading Israel to release "550 prisoners from Fatah who will be handed to (Abbas) after two months," the diplomat, speaking on background, told reporters.
The Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza will release soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006, next week in exchange for at least 450 Palestinian prisoners the same week and 550 others within two months. Israel, which will decide on the prisoners in the second group, has not yet announced their names but the Egyptian diplomat said his country had insisted since 2007 that they be Fatah members. The diplomat added his country alone had mediated the exchange and German mediation had ended "some months ago."
"The German role had failed and ended some months ago," he said. The head of the German intelligence service (BND) indicated that his agents played a part in the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, hailing the operation as a "huge success. The exchange could boost the status of Hamas, which violently ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007 after winning an election, versus its Fatah rivals in the West Bank. But, despite its assurances, it has failed to include popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghuti in the exchange, as well as leftist militant Ahmed Saadat, whose group assassinated a far right Israeli government minister. Several dozen of the released prisoners are to be exiled from their homes, a controversial point among Palestinians.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.