GAZA (AFP) — The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip released 17 member of the rival Fatah movement on Tuesday in what it called a goodwill gesture ahead of Palestinian reconciliation talks in Egypt.
The men were released from Saraya, the main prison in the Palestinian territory.
Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, said the released aimed at preparing the ground for dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.
The two movements have been invited to meet in Cairo on November 9 to discuss an Egyptian plan which aims to restore Palestinian unity.
The two have been bitterly divided since the Islamist Hamas drove forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of fierce street clashes in June 2007, cleaving deep political divisions between Gaza and the West Bank.
Haniya urged the Palestinian Authority to respond to the prisoner release by freeing dozens of Hamas members held in the West Bank.
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