Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Saturday declared the issue of prisoners to be a top priority and that there would be no peace agreement with Israel until the issue was resolved. "There will be no peace until all Palestinian prisoners are freed from Israeli jails," the president of the Palestinian Authority said.
The Palestinian Authority "will not rest until all prisoners have been released," he added after meeting with Abdullah Abu Rahma, the co-ordinator of the popular committee against the Israeli wall in the city of Bil'in who was recently freed from Israeli jail.
Abu Rahma said that inter-Palestinian reconciliation "is necessary to counter the dire conditions the Palestinian cause is facing." According to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, several Hamas lawmakers and leaders from the West Bank have received invitations to meet with Abbas in order to start dialogue about negotiations for a unity government.
The Hamas and Abbas' Fatah organisation have been at loggerheads since Hamas unexpectedly defeated Fatah in 2006 legislative elections. The rivalry spilled over into violence in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, when in a week of bloodletting Hamas routed officers loyal to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, and seized full control of security installations in the salient.
New efforts to reconcile the two largest Palestinian factions have been made since March 16, when Abbas accepted an invitation from Hamas Primer Minister Ismail Haniyeh to visit Gaza. In a separate statement Saturday, Abbas said the EU should play a more active role in the peace process and in ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state. "The peace process needs serious steps to salvage it from the impasse it is facing because Israel refuses to stop settlements in Palestinian territory," he said.