Hamas says no unity talks while Fatah holds prisoners: report

CAIRO (AFP) – The detention of Hamas activists by Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will scupper reconciliation talks between the rival Palestinian groups, a Hamas official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah are expected to resume reconciliation talks in Cairo on February 22, Salah al-Bardawil told Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Yom daily, but the Islamists will not attend while a "single (Hamas) prisoner" remains in jail.

"We will not sit down (with Fatah) until they release (Hamas prisoners), and whoever does not want to release them does not want reconciliation," he said.

Bardawil headed a delegation of Hamas officials from Gaza that met over the weekend with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to bolster a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and restart Palestinian unity talks.

Another member of the delegation, Jamal Abu Hashim, met with Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed on Monday in a preparatory meeting for the reconciliation talks.

"It was a consultative meeting to break the ice and to go forward toward reconciliation," Ahmed said in a press conference on Monday.

Ahmed told AFP that he and Abu Hashim had agreed to follow up on the meeting.

The Egyptian-brokered talks between Fatah and Hamas broke off in November when Hamas boycotted a meeting in Cairo, saying Fatah continued to arrest its members in the West Bank.

"Hamas needs guarantees from others, and also how will it go to reconciliation talks while 650 of our leaders are in Abu Mazen's jails?" he said, referring to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Both Hamas and Fatah have detained each other's members since Hamas, which won an upset victory in 2006 parliamentary elections, seized the Gaza Strip the following year. Fatah remains in control of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.