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Israel on Thursday released a Hamas lawmaker arrested nearly four years ago following the capture of an Israeli occupation soldier by Gaza resistance fighters.
Mohammed Abu Teir, a senior Hamas leader, was welcomed by dozens of family members and supporters at his home in occupied Jerusalem.
"Just as I have a father, a mother and a family, he also has a father and a mother who want him home. I don't want Shalit to remain in captivity, just as I did not like captivity," he told reporters.
"But the Israeli leadership prevented the deal, he added, "I believe that the Israeli leaders are all against the deal. They reached a deal one, twice, three times, but they did not move forwards. There are people who have been in prison for 33 years, why not released them? He could have been home by now. The deal is not in my hands, but in the hands of the leaders."
Abu Teir was jailed after being found guilty of "membership in an illegal organization and hostile and terrorist activities," a spokeswoman for the Israeli prison service said.
He was among more than 60 Hamas elected officials arrested after the Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit was captured in June 2006 in an attack claimed by Hamas and two other resistance groups and many MPs have since been released.
At present Israel still holds 12 Hamas legislators in custody, as well as two from the secular Fatah movement led by Mahmud Abbas and one from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Nine other Hamas officials have been released from Israeli prisons in recent months, including Aziz Dwaik, head of the Hamas parliament and former Prisoners Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabha.
Hamas has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including several top fighters convicted of deadly attacks, in exchange for Shalit, who is being held in a secret location in Gaza.
The last round of talks over Shalit, mediated by Egypt and a German diplomat, ground to a halt late last year when Israel refused to free a number of detainees that Hamas demanded their release.
Hamas democratically won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in January 2006, the first it contested, securing 74 seats in the 132-member legislature and routing long-dominant Fatah, which won just 45.
[Source: Al-ManarTV]
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