RAMALLAH, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Israel freed late on Monday afternoon an Islamic Hamas movement lawmaker, after he ended his 38-month sentence in Israeli prison, Hamas movement said in a statement.

    Hamas said that the Israeli authorities released Ibrahim Abu Salem, a lawmaker in the Hamas-dominated parliament three days after he ended a 38-month sentence in Israeli prison.

    "An Israeli police force took Abu Salem, a resident of the Arab East Jerusalem, to an Israeli army barrier that links between Hebron (south of the West Bank) and Jerusalem and didn't let him go to his home in the city," Hamas said.

    Abu Salem was detained together with 40 Hamas lawmakers and ministers in the West Bank at the end of June 2006, in reaction to the kidnapping of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas and two other armed groups.

    Two weeks ago, Israel freed parliament speaker Aziz al-Dweik and some other lawmakers after they ended their sentences in Israeli jails. Israel keeps detaining 35 other Hamas lawmakers and three others representing other factions.

    Meanwhile, Hamas is studying a proposal presented by President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with al-Dweik held last week in Ramallah, calling for forming a Palestinian unity government, sources said on Monday.

    "The proposal was put forward to Hamas officials in West Bank last week," the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua. The offer has reached Hamas' leaders in the Gaza Strip.

    The sources refused to talk about the details of the proposal which Hamas leaders have been studying, but stressed that it calls for a unity government of different figures, including five Hamas members.