After a denial for years .. Egypt frees the four Hamas terrorists

The head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Ismail Haniyeh said that the Egyptian authorities released on Thursday evening four members of the movement after being detained for more than three years.

The four young men were released through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, where they were greeted by dozens of citizens. They were taken in cars directly to Haniyeh's office west of Gaza City.

The four young men, all members of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, were detained in mysterious circumstances in August 2015 upon entering Egyptian territory through the Rafah crossing. They were on their way to Turkey. They were Abdullah Abu al-Jubain and Abdel-Daim Abu Libda and Hussein the butter and Yaser Zanon.

In a statement published by Haniyeh's office, Haniyeh said that "the head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, officially announces the release of the four brothers and their return from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and expresses his deep thanks to the Egyptian leadership for its decision which reflects the depth of the relationship between the two brotherly peoples."

He stressed "the success of efforts to release four other citizens from the Gaza Strip and return them safely."

Hamas leader Salah al-Bardawil said in a statement that "painstaking efforts led by Hamas over the years culminated in the release of the four young men who lost their effects in Egypt more than 1280 days ago," without giving further details.

Haniyeh returned to Gaza on Wednesday after a month-long visit to Egypt, the first since he was elected president of Hamas, during which he met with Egyptian officials.

A few days ago, sources close to Hamas revealed to Al-Jazeera Net revealed that Haniyeh, during his visit to Cairo, discussed several files with the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, Major General Abbas Kamel, the most prominent of which was the file of the four abductees from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The sources confirmed that Haniyeh managed to obtain official approval for the release of the four young men kidnapped by "unknown" on 19 August 2015, when they were in the bus "deportation" from the Rafah crossing to Cairo International Airport, where Egypt has denied knowledge of their fate, but Haniyeh's current talks achieved a "breakthrough" in this issue.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, are improving over a year. Egypt, in cooperation with the United Nations in November, succeeded in reaching an informal understanding of the truce between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.