Hamas movement said on Thursday that it was ready to resume reconciliation talks if Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas releases more than 600 of its activists being held in the West Bank. "The number of prisoners held by Abbas' security services in the West Bank now totals 616. What is happening in the West Bank is an attempt to eliminate Hamas," a senior official from the movement, Salah al-Bardawil, told a Gaza City news conference.
"If these political prisoners are freed tomorrow, the Hamas delegation will return to Cairo within the hour to take part in dialogue," he said, according to AFP.
Palestinian factions had agreed to meet in Cairo on Monday, but the talks were called off after Hamas announced a boycott in protest at the rounding up of its members. Bardawil added that next week Hamas would hold a series of events "in solidarity with the political prisoners."
