This article was originally published by Maan News and is republished with permission.

The Interior Ministry of the de facto government in Gaza released on Thursday Abdallah Abu Samhadana, a Fatah leader and the governor of the Deir Al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, along with 150 other people.

Abu Samhadana was released in response to a petition by the Hamas-affiliated speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Ahmad Bahar.

The Interior Ministry said on its website, "In response to the appeal of the Legislative Council Chairman Dr Ahmad Bahr, the ministry decided to release Abdullah Abu Samhadana as a gesture of goodwill and to reduce the Palestinian division and clashes."

The Ministry called on the Palestinian Authority to release political detainees in the West Bank.

The detainees were rounded up in a sweep the de facto government said was part of an investigation into a deadly bombing on the Gaza shore on 25 July.

The ministry also reopened more than 20 institutions and organizations after closing them in the same sweep.