Ahmed al-Ja’bari, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team credited with freeing 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli gunner Gilad Shalit, said that while he was unhappy that some Palestinians had to be deported to Syria, Jordan, Qatar, and Turkey as part of the deal, it was “the only way to release them.”
Hamas negotiator Ahmed al-Ja'bari (PNN Archive).
“The number of deported prisoners is only 41,” al-Ja’bari told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper on Thursday. “Most of them are from Hamas and this was the only way we could release them while keeping them from being targeted.”
Israel considered the 41 deported prisoners to be the most dangerous of those freed, responsible in total for the deaths of 596 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Al-Ja’bari said the 164 Palestinian prisoners originally from the West Bank who would be taken to the Gaza Strip did not count as deportees, arguing, “Gaza is a part of Palestine.”
While he said he considered the deal’s completion part of “the happiest day in my life,” al-Ja’bari said, “The deal is only complete when Israel agrees to [the rest of] Hamas’s demands,” referring to the outstanding 550 prisoners to be released in two months’ time.
In related news, Hamas political bureau vice president Mousa Abu Marzouq told al-Hayat that the Islamist group’s visit to Jordan was related to the deal, not to any governmental changes in Amman or Damascus. He said Hamas was working to build good relationships with all Arab countries.
PNN - Palestine News Network
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