GAZA CITY: The Gaza Strip’s Hamas prime minister yesterday ordered the reopening of a Palestinian news agency closed in July for alleged “false” reporting of Hamas aid to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
“Prime Minister Ismail Haniya ordered reopening Maan (agency) from tomorrow morning,” government spokesman Ihab Al Hussein said.
The decision was taken at a meeting between Haniya and Palestinian faction leaders to discuss renewing unity talks. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement was not represented at the meeting.
Islamic Jihad delegate Khaled Al Batsh said that at the start of the talks he asked Haniya to reopen Maan and the local offices of Saudi-owned pan-Arab TV channel Al Arabiya, which were closed on the same day.
Batsh said that Haniya made no immediate decision on Al Arabiya but that the factions would pursue the matter with him today.
At the time of the closure a Maan staffer and a Hamas official said the agency’s Gaza office was being shut temporarily for a report — citing Israeli sources — saying that Hamas gave refuge in a Gaza hotel to fugitive leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Saudi-owned pan-Arab channel Al Arabiya did not reveal the reasons for its office closure.
Hamas is the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
AFP
