Hamas Movement considered on Thursday the Israeli plan to free 500 Palestinian POW's a "deceptive maneuver aiming at improving the Israeli image".
Hamas official said in a press release "the movement is delighted for releasing any Palestinian prisoner, considering the release a legal right, not a favor". However, the official "expressed regret for ignoring a list of prisoners who have priority for being released, such as those who have been detained for long period of time, sick prisoners, female prisoners, and children."
He added that "the release of prisoners reflects Israel's non-seriousness toward Palestinian demands and conditions for a truce, as most of the prisoners who will be released have served their jail terms or the administrative prisoners not yet convicted."
Earlier, Sheikh Ismail Haneyya, one of Hamas' prominent leaders in the Gaza Strip, has said that Hamas had conveyed its regret to Cairo over the return of Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors to Tel Aviv.
Haneyya told a seminar Wednesday night in Imam Shafee Mosque in Gaza city that his Movement even asked for rescinding that decision. He also pointed out that Hamas did not yet adopt a final decision on the truce with the Israeli enemy but was still observing the calming down promised to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The term calming down was used by Hamas spokesman after intensified consultation within the Movement, he underscored and explained that no decision was ever passed by the Movement without such discussions.
“Resistance is a method pursued to achieve liberation and release of all prisoners. If those two goals are realized through truce then we welcome it, otherwise we will continue resistance till we achieve them,” he elaborated, according to PIC.
Haneyya emphasized that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with two conditions, first not to surrender one inch of historical Palestine and second not to recognize the “enemy”.
Another prominent Hamas Movement leader, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahhar, took part in the seminar and re-affirmed earlier statements that his Movement would consult with the PA in the event of Israeli violations of the calming down. “We hope the world would understand who is responsible for the aggression,” he noted.
Meanwhile, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said his movement was monitoring Israeli violations of the ceasefire.
