A senior Fatah party leader revealed on Monday that the Islamic Hamas movement rejected Fatah' s offer to free its West Bank prisoners in exchange for Hamas to lift travel ban on Fatah members of general assembly in Gaza, Xinhua reported.
Hamas is still banning the travel of around 200 Fatah Gaza members to attend the movement's general assembly to be held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday.
"After refusing several Arab and foreign mediators, Hamas rejected Fatah's offer to free hundreds of its prisoners in the West Bank for lifting the ban on Gaza Fatah members," senior Fatah leader Nabil Shaath told reporters.
Hamas leaders have earlier asserted that Gaza Fatah members will not be able to leave the Gaza Strip unless the security forces of President Mahmoud Abbas free their prisoners in the West Bank.
Several Arab and foreign countries have been holding intensive meetings with Hamas leadership to let Gaza Fatah members to travel from Gaza to the West Bank to join the conference. The efforts have so far failed, said Fatah leaders.
"I can't believe that the offer to free all Hamas prisoners in the West Bank for lifting the travel ban on Gaza Fatah members was rejected by Hamas," said Shaath.
He added "We never expected that Hamas would reject this offer since its leaders have been calling for this all the time, but we will anyway deal with the current situation."
Shaath revealed that Hamas leaders added more conditions to lift the travel ban on Gaza Fatah members. They not only want Hamas prisoners in the West Bank to be released, they also want guarantees not to arrest their members in the future.
"I don't understand that they don't want to release Fatah prisoners from its jails and at the same time they don't want to let Gaza Fatah members of the conference to leave," said Shaath.