Hamas Report: Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa’adat to be Among Those Released

According to the official Hamas website, Marwan Barghouti, along with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary General Ahmad Sa’adat, will be released from Israeli prisons.  The two are part of a deal that is believed to bring the release of about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.  Corporal Shalit has been in captivity for 64 months.

Marwan Barghouti is in prison for the murder of Israeli civilians and attacks on Israeli soldiers, but is still a highly influential figure in Palestinian politics.  Many Palestinians believe he is capable of politically unifying Hamas and Fatah.

Ahmad Sa’adat, Secretary General of the PFLP, was first imprisoned in 2001 by the Palestinian National Authority.  He has since been relocated to an Israeli prison, where he is in solitary confinement.  Sa’adat is accused of organizing the assassination of the late Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze’evi, who was killed on October 17, 2001.

No other sources have confirmed the release of Barghouti and Sa’adat.  Thus, Hamas could be reporting just to add extra pressure on the Israeli government.  While the release of Barghouti would come as no surprise, the return of Sa’adat would likely have the same effect on the Palestinian population that Samir Kuntar’s release did on the Lebanese.  Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze in the Palestinian Liberation Front, was imprisoned in 1980 in Israelfor his role in the attempted kidnapping of an Israeli family.  Four Israeli’s died in the incident.  He was released On May 26, 2008, as part of an exchange for the remains of two Israeli soldier reservists, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were captured by Hezbollah.

More to come as the story develops…