Israel on Tuesday released the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, regarded as a key bargaining chip in efforts to secure the release of a captured Israeli soldier. Speaking outside the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah, Aziz Dweik called for 'unity, reconciliation and dialogue' between the Islamist Hamas, who rule the Gaza Strip, and the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. 'I reach out to those who work towards unity of the Palestinian people,' the 60 -year-old politician said, calling for the release of all prisoners held in the West Bank and those held in Gaza by Hamas. Dweik was elected speaker in February 2006, a month after Hamas swept parliamentary elections in a surprise rout of Abbas's long dominant Fatah. He was arrested by Israeli security forces at his Ramallah home in August 2006 in a crackdown on Hamas in which more than 60 elected officials were detained, including a third of the then government and more than two dozen MPs. Some were later released, but at least 35 remain in custody. The crackdown came after Hamas and other Gaza militants seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006. Shalit remains in captivity to this day and Dweik was seen as part of a possible trade for his release. Dozens of Israeli protesters blocked crossings into Gaza on Tuesday to push for Shalit's liberation. Hamas ousted forces loyal to Abbas when it violently seized power in Gaza in June 2007. Despite continuing divisions, Abbas called Dweik to 'congratulate' him on his freedom, his office said. But the discord between the two sides was on full display. Hamas welcomed Dweik's release, with a statement saying it 'should breathe new life into and reinforce the parliament and introduce a certain balance to the West Bank faced with the monstrosity of Fatah and its security services.' Israeli police dropped Dweik at a military checkpoint outside the city of Tulkarem in the north of the occupied West Bank after his release from Hadarim prison near Tel Aviv. His release came after a military tribunal at the Ofer military base near Ramallah rejected an application by prosecutors to keep Dweik behind bars after his three-year sentence ran out. In December 2008, an Israeli military court sentenced Dweik to three years -- including the 28 months he had already served -- for belonging to Hamas, which Israel, the European Union and the United States consider a terror group. Because of power struggles between Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian parliament has been paralysed for nearly all of its tenure, managing to meet only a few times since its inaugural session in February 2006. Hamas has 74 MPs in the 132-seat parliament and Fatah 45, with the rest of the deputies belonging to smaller factions. Israel currently holds some 9,260 Palestinian prisoners, according to Palestinian figures. 