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| - Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, said Tuesday it had released Palestinian activists who were arrested in April after organising a video conference with left-leaning Israeli campaigners. Rami Aman, founder of the Gaza Youth Committee, was arrested with several others following a Zoom conference with dozens of Israeli activists, in violation Hamas' ban on any communication with Israel. "Rami Aman and two other activists were released on Monday," Gaza Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bazam told AFP. Hamas had accused Aman, 39, of "treason" and of promoting "normalisation" of relations with Israel, and a Gaza court sentenced him to a year in prison. The two others released, aged 25 and 32, were identified only by their initials. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, the group had been found guilty of "weakening the spirit of the revolution". The group had participated in a series of discussions dubbed "Skype with your enemy". Participants talked about their daily lives and expressed hope for better leadership for both Israelis and Palestinians. The release follows a complaint filed with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last month by a coalition of 70 civil society groups demanding Aman's immediate release. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel and most Western states, seized control of Gaza in a 2007 near civil war. Since then the Jewish state has fought three devastating wars in Gaza while maintaining a crippling blockade on the coastal strip, arguing it must isolate Hamas. sa/cgo/bs/fz
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