GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Egypt is to start monitoring the performance of the public freedoms committee, a member told Ma'an on Monday.
Khalil Assaf, a committee member from the West Bank, said that a meeting was held Sunday in Cairo with Egyptian officials, who recommended that Egypt monitors the committee's work in order to overcome obstacles it has been facing in the West Bank and Gaza.
Another meeting is scheduled to be held on Feb. 21 to follow up with what has been achieved on the ground.
Political detainees, the passport crisis in Gaza, freedom of movement and freedom of press in the West Bank and Gaza, are likely to dominate the agenda, Assaf said.
Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, independent figure Mustafa Barghouti, and Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq were among Palestinian officials who attended the meeting.
The Egyptian delegation was headed by senior Egyptian intelligence officer in charge of Palestinian affairs Nadir al-Asar.
Al-Ahmad said the committee had discovered that Hamas had not released any detained Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian Authority had released a large number of Hamas detainees in the West Bank.
Barghouthi told reporters that the meeting in Cairo was positive and constructive, and members had agreed on mechanisms to put the committee's decisions into effect.
The public freedoms committee is tasked with hammering out a number of tenets of the unity deal signed in May last year, including political prisoners, passports, closure of institutions, travel bans and freedom of political expression.
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