Hamas has expressed interest in three prisoners detained by Israel, which is thought to indicate that Hamas is thinking of broad collaboration for a Palestinian government. Their list is said to include Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and other PLO leaders, in what is considered as planning for the “day after” the end of the conflict.
Another of the prisoners is Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary-general of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He had been convicted of being the planner of the assassination of government minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001. Sa’adat is also considered a prominent and popular figure in Palestinian society.
The third prisoner on the list is Abdullah Barghouti, a former commander of Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank. He is currently serving 67 life sentences, an unprecedented punishment in Israel. The inclusion of two Barghoutis is said to indicate that Hamas is looking towards a unity agreement with the PLO, according to Israel’s major news agency Ynet.
