Israel releases senior female Hamas official
Dr. Maryam Salah arrested in December 2007, charged with belonging to terror organization. After being released she calls on Arab, Muslim worlds to help free all female Palestinian prisoners
Seven months after being arrested, Hamas' representative to the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Maryam Salah, was released from Israeli custody on Sunday afternoon.
Salah was jailed after being charged with belonging to a terror organization. Speaking with journalists after her release, Salah called for the release of all Palestinian parliamentarians and all Palestinian prisoners in general.
She also called on the Arab and Islamic world to work towards securing the release of female prisoners. The conditions of her imprisonment, she said, were catastrophic.
Salah served in the first Hamas government as minister of women's affairs.
Inmates being held in Israeli jails, she said, are looking to the prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel in which numerous Palestinian prisoners will likely be released in return for kidnapped soldier
Gilad Shalit.
Hamas officials estimated that Salah's release from prison was not connected to the Shalit deal or an overture towards any future agreement.
Over 40 Palestinian parliamentarians, most of them Hamas representatives, remain in Israeli custody.
