Middle East: media reports Hamas will request release of leaders sentenced to life imprisonment

Milan, 5 October (LaPresse) – Hamas will request the release of some of the most notorious Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages. This was reported by Israeli TV Channel 12, citing sources from the terrorist organisation, on the eve of talks in Egypt. Among others, they include Marwan Barghouti, the leader of Fatah Tanzim, in prison for multiple murders during the Second Intifada; Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Ibrahim Hamed, sentenced to 45 life sentences for orchestrating the killing of numerous Israelis as Hamas commander in the West Bank during the Second Intifada; Abbas al-Sayed, who orchestrated the 2002 attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in which 39 Israelis were killed; and Hassan Salameh of Hamas, who is serving 48 life sentences for multiple suicide bombings. Channel 12 quotes a Hamas source as saying that it ‘will not give up’ on securing the release of these and other prisoners serving life sentences, whose release Israel has vetoed in previous agreements, ‘even at the cost of compromising the agreement.’