Fatah finalizing list of detainees to be freed in Gaza
Published yesterday (updated) 01/12/2012 16:55
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=543905

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Fatah is working on a list of affiliates in Gaza jails
to be released by the Hamas government as part of conciliatory measures
between the rival governments, officials said.

Fatah has prepared a list to go before a committee to verify the inmates,
Fatah official Yahya Rabah told Ma'an.

He reiterated the importance of the decision taken by the Hamas
administration in Gaza to release Fatah-affiliated prisoners in order to
push forward the long-stalled reconciliation deal between the parties.

"We need to see those men back in their homes and among their families to
end a dark period of the split," he said.

Both Gaza and the West Bank government pledged last week to grant amnesties
to those linked to their 2007 split.

In Gaza, a security official said Thursday that those linked to killings
during the violent fighting leading up to the split would not be included in
the amnesty.

Member of the bipartisan reconciliation committee Yasser al-Wadiyeh said the
group had secured pledges from the parties to consider those killed as
martyrs and provide compensation.

Fatah official Atef Abu Said said 56 party affiliates are in Gaza's jails
for political reasons, and estimated that hundreds of members and employees
of the security services had fled Gaza after 2007 when Hamas took control.
Exiles are also expected to be pardoned under the deal.