Hamas security forces freed three Palestinian journalists today whom they had arrested last month and accused of fabricating news critical of the Islamist group, officials said.
The journalists worked in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for the Palestine Press, a local news agency with ties to the group's main rival, President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
A Hamas internal security official said the three men were released after they confessed that they had "fabricated reports" critical of the Hamas cabinet and its security forces.
One of the journalists, speaking to reporters and human rights officials - as Hamas security men stood nearby - said after their release: "We made a mistake and it won't be repeated."
The Hamas security official said the release followed "intense intervention by fellow journalists" who appealed to the group's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.
Since Hamas routed Fatah forces in Gaza last year, activists had traded accusations of persecution. The Islamist group says several Hamas-affiliated journalists have been imprisoned by security forces loyal to Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Reuters