GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In an unprecedented development that further strained relations between the Palestinian Hamas movement and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, Hamas welcomed the initiative of Yemen’s Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, to release Saudi captives in exchange for Hamas prisoners detained in Saudi Arabia. 

In a televised speech March 26 on the television channel Al-Masirah, marking the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Yemeni war, Houthi said his group is ready to release five Saudi captives, including a pilot, if Saudi Arabia frees Hamas members detained since April 2019.

“We declare our complete readiness to free a Saudi pilot and four government officers and soldiers in exchange for the release of unjustly detained Hamas members in the kingdom,” he said

Hamas’ repeated calls demanding the Saudi government release its detainees from the kingdom’s prisons fell on deaf ears. Hamas’ politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh, addressed King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud in an urgent note March 22 and asked him to take a decision to release the Palestinian detainees to avoid becoming infected with the novel coronavirus that has become a pandemic.