Hamas Releases Prisoners Accused of Plotting to Assassinate Haniyeh

In this January 3, 2011 file photo, then Palestinian Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)
In this January 3, 2011 file photo, then Palestinian Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)
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Hamas Releases Prisoners Accused of Plotting to Assassinate Haniyeh

In this January 3, 2011 file photo, then Palestinian Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)
In this January 3, 2011 file photo, then Palestinian Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

Gaza- Hamas security services in the Gaza Strip released three Fatah Movement supporters within the framework of an agreement with the faction of Mohammed Dahlan, a leader dismissed from Fatah, in a sign of consolidated alliance between the two parties.

Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the release was carried out with the approval of Hamas’ politburo and security bodies, although the detainees were arrested and convicted of planning explosions and attacks, including the assassination attempt on Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas politburo, who was then prime minister.

Hamas released Hassan Mohammed al-Zant, Aahed Mohammed Abu Qamar and Subhi Ahmed Abu Dahi, all members of Fatah security services loyal to Dahlan.

“The three detainees have been released as part of the ongoing quest for reconciliation and national consensus, and under the agreements of the Commission on Community Reconciliation,” said Iyad al-Bazm, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

“The Ministry of Interior and National Security always supports every effort aimed at achieving national unity and the interests of our people; we hope that all causes of division will disappear”, he added.

Hamas arrested al-Zant, a resident of al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, in January 2008.

Hamas Government former Interior Minister Said Siam, who was assassinated by Israel in 2009 in the first Gaza war, revealed the confessions of al-Zant and a group of Fatah elements, and said they planned to kill Haniyeh, noting that al-Zant has received direct orders from Palestinian security leaders in the West Bank.

Aahed Abu Qamar, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip, was detained with a group of Preventive Security forces in February 2015. Hamas said he was planning to carry out bombings in Gaza under the instructions of security leaders in Ramallah.

As for Subhi Abu Dahi, he was arrested in 2016 on charges of forming cells and collaborating with Ramallah. He was a senior lieutenant in the Palestinian Authority.

“The release of the three detainees will be followed by further steps by Hamas, which will allow the return of 90 percent of the people who left Gaza after the events of 2006-2007,” Fatah MP Majed Abu Shamala, a member of the Dahlan faction, said.

This new measure is the second step within community reconciliation efforts launched by Hamas with the Dahlan movement, which started with settling financial dues to the families of victims of Fatah members killed during the violent clashes in 2006-2007.



Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
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Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo

Greece has invited Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli to start talks on demarcating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.

The move is aimed at mending relations between the two neighbors, strained by a controversial maritime deal signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Türkiye, Greece's long-standing foe, which mapped out a sea area close to the Greek island of Crete.

"We invite - and I think you may soon see progress in this area - we invite the Tripoli government to discuss with Greece the delimitation of a continental shelf and an exclusive economic zone," Mitsotakis told local Skai television, Reuters reported.

Greece this year launched a new tender to develop its hydrocarbon resources off Crete, a move that Libya has objected to, saying some of the blocks infringed its own maritime zones.

Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.

Therefore, any communication with Libya was not easy, Mitsotakis said. He indicated that Greece was determined to continue talking to both the Tripoli-based government and a parallel administration based in Benghazi.

In recent months, Athens has sought closer cooperation with Libya to help stem a surge in migrant arrivals from the North African country to Greece's southern islands of Gavdos and Crete and passed legislation banning migrants arriving from Libya by sea from requesting asylum.

In an incident earlier this month, the European Union migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece were denied entry to the eastern part of divided Libya, shortly after meeting the internationally recognized government that controls the west of Libya.