Israel releases six Hamas MPs

Tel Aviv releases 31 of 60 Hamas elected officials from Israeli prison in recent months.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel on Monday released six Palestinian MPs from the democratically elected Hamas movement who were detained in 2006, officials said.

A seventh MP was freed late Sunday, bringing to 31 the total number of Hamas lawmakers released in recent months, including parliamentary speaker Aziz al-Dweik, who was freed in June.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Prisons Authority said the six lawmakers were released on Monday because the period of their administrative detention had expired. None of the MPs was charged with anything.

The MPs were among the more than 60 Hamas elected officials, including ministers, deputies and mayors, who were arrested by Israel following the June 2006 capture of Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit by Gaza resistance.

Fifteen of the elected officials remain in custody, according to Palestinian officials.

One of the Hamas MPs freed on Monday said the arrests were part of an Israeli attempt to prevent parliament from functioning and had nothing to do with the capture of Shalit.

"This confirms what we have said, that the campaign of arrests was basically intended to strike the Legislative Council and not for security as Israel had said," freed Hamas MP Mahmud al-Ramahi said.

Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in January 2006, the first it contested, securing 74 seats in the 132-legislature and routing long-dominant Fatah that got only 45.