Fatah: Release of political detainees \'almost resolved\'

Fatah and Hamas are close to resolving the issues of political detainees and passports for Gaza residents, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said Wednesday. Shaath met with Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar in Gaza City on Tuesday to discuss implementation of a reconciliation deal signed in May to end years of rivalry between the parties. The Fatah leader told Ma'an that both parties were processing the release of political prisoners, as agreed in the unity deal. "The case is being processed by both sides, and the committee for public freedoms as well as Egypt is involved in assessing whether those detainees were held over political affiliation or criminal charges. The case is almost resolved." But Shaath said there were only around 40 people jailed for their political activism. "People imagine that there are thousands of detainees held for their political affiliation. It is true that in the past thousands of political detainees were held by both sides, but nowadays the number is around 40," Shaath said. Meanwhile the Committee for Public Freedoms, set up to oversee implementation of the unity deal, has discussed issuing passports to Hamas supporters who were denied documents by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, Shaath said. Shaath discussed the matter with Zahhar, and agreed that all citizens had the right to a Palestinian passport. "However, I highlighted that Palestinian passports, which are respected all over the world, should be protected from any forgery or changes," he added. Asked about Zahhar's comments that peaceful resistance was not applicable in Gaza, Shaath said the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to speed up implementation of the reconciliation agreement, Shaath said. "Reconciliation committees will hold successive meetings so as to build nationalisticrelations on the ground which will enable us to form a technocrat government quickly." Rivalry between Hamas and Fatah reached a peak in 2007, when fighting neared civil war and led to the creation of separate governments in the West Bank and Gaza. Some eight months on from the signing of the reconciliation agreement in Cairo, many aspects of the deal have yet to be implemented, including the formation of a unity government.