JERUSALEM, July 8 (AFP): Israel's cabinet Sunday approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners of president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party in a move to boost the moderate leader battling for authority with Islamist Hamas.
"The government approved the proposal to release 250 Palestinian prisoners who are members of Fatah as a gesture of goodwill toward Abbas," a senior government official present at the proceedings told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The release was promised by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a Mideast summit in Egypt in late June to Abbas, whom Israel would like to bolster after security forces loyal to the moderate leader were overrun in Gaza by militants from Islamist Hamas.
Authorities are expected within days to draw up a final list of the names, which will have to be approved by Olmert.
None of the prisoners released will have "blood on their hands," meaning implication in attacks that have killed Israelis, Olmert said at the start of the cabinet meeting.
"We are not doing this gesture out of some illusion that through it, we will change the face of the Middle East," he said.
"But we are doing it out of hope that we can use any means possible to strengthen moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority, to encourage them to move in a direction that could allow conditions to begin real talks," he said.
Israeli cabinet approves release of 250 Fatah prisoners
FE Team | Published: July 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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