Sources: Egypt security arrested Fatah leader

Egyptian authorities have been holding Fatah’s senior leader, Zaki Al-Sakani, for several days, Arabi21 reported yesterday.

Quoting a well-informed source close to the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, the agency said that Al-Sakani had been arrested by Egyptian security.

Al-Sakani, known as Abu Rashad, was released from Hamas’ prisons in the occupied Gaza Strip in October 2016, he had been held as a result of his alleged involvement in the bombing a Qassam Brigades-affiliated vehicle in the enclave.

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Abu Rashad was then received in the Egyptian capital Cairo by former Palestinian Authority (PA) Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan, before he began to get involved in the Palestinian embassy’s operations in Egypt.

The source denounced what he described as “targeting and prosecuting Abu Rashad after spending his life being chased by the Israeli occupation and detained by Hamas for more than ten years.”

“The Egyptian move comes at a very sensitive time,” the source pointed out, warning that it would harm the “fraternal relations between the PA and the Egyptian government.”