RAMALLAH, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday released two lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the West Bank.

Local rights groups' sources told Xinhua that Israel released Samir al-Qadi and Abdel Rahman Zeidan, who are also members of the Islamic Hamas movement in the West Bank.

After spending 16 months in an Israeli jail under the administrative detention, al-Qadi was released at an Israeli army checkpoint near the southern West Bank city of Hebron and Zeidan was released at an Israeli checkpoint near Ramallah.

Hamas members in the PLC said in a press statement that the Israeli attempts to keep Hamas lawmakers imprisoned in its jails " is a poor attempt to deprive the Palestinians of their parliamentary rights."

Hamas, which dominates the PLC with 74 out of 132 seats, said in the statement that it calls on the Arab and international parliaments to pressure Israel to release all the Palestinian lawmakers and PLC members from its jails.