Israel on Tuesday released the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, a senior Hamas member who has been jailed in the Jewish state for three years, reported local news service Ynet.

Aziz Duwaik was escorted by a unit of the Israel Prison Service to a checkpoint, from where he returned to the West Bank, said the report.

The 60-year-old Hamas official was arrested in August 2006, two months after Gazan gunmen abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit ina cross-border raid. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his ties with Hamas, a group blacklisted by Israel as a terrorist organization.

Last week, Israeli prosecutors tried to persuade a military court to extend Duwaik's prison term but failed, according to local daily Ha'aretz.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)