Political detention in the West Bank doesn't help reconciliation

The official spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Fawzi Barhoum, has said that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is responsible for the lives of political prisoners in its prisons. He has pointed out that the continued detention of political prisoners by Ramallah “doesn’t help national reconciliation”. One of the leaders of the Hamas military wing, Abdullah Al-Aker, is on hunger strike in the PA’s Aljaneed Prison; his health is deteriorating after nine days of refusing food.

Barhoum condemned the continued political arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank. “After  the Cairo agreement, there is no justification for holding political prisoners in the West Bank,” he said. “We demand their immediate release and an end to political detention.”

The Hamas spokesman called on the sponsors of reconciliation and the public freedoms’ committee to intervene immediately to bring about an end to all political detention, which, he added, “is the biggest obstacle to national unity”.