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21:06 GMT
prisoners
GAZA, Oct 23 (KUNA) -- Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the sacked
Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza Strip, called Saturday on the
international community to put more pressue of Israel in order to set free
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
At a conference here, the Hamas leader noted that every dignitary, visiting
Gaza, talked about the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but ignored more
than 8,000 Palestinian political detainees.
Haniya said there were no detention centers in Gaza for political prisoners
and that there would never be.
He appealed for the Arab leaders, in particular Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, to work towards the release of Palestinian political prisoners
detained in Arab countries.
"It is shameful that political prisoners are held in Palestine and in Arab
countries while we demand that Israel releases our prisoners," Haniya said.
He called on his government Prisoners' Affairs Ministry to form a
delegation of detainees' relatives to visit Arab and European countries as
part of lobbying for prisoners' rights at an international level.
The delegation should include families of Palestinian detainees whether in
Israeli or Arab jails, he said, adding that his government would fund all
expenses of the tour. (end).
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