Israel frees 250 Palestinian prisoners
Saturday, 21 July 2007
BEITUNYA, (West Bank), July 20 (AFP) - Over 250 Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel were arriving in the occupied West Bank Friday in the biggest such releases in two years intended to bolster president Mahmud Abbas.
The first two buses carrying handcuffed men from Israel's Ketziot prison in the Negev desert arrived at the Beitunya checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank political capital of Ramallah just after 0700 GMT, an AFP reporter said.
The prisoners were then to be formally handed over to the Palestinian authorities before being driven to the Muqataa, the Palestinian Authority leadership compound, where Abbas was waiting to give them a heroes' welcome.
Friday's prisoner release is the biggest by Israel since 2005, when 500 Palestinians were freed in February and another 400 in June.
Hundreds of wellwishers and relatives flocked to Beitunya, carrying the Palestinian flag, banners of Abbas's Fatah party and its armed offshoot, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and pictures of Abbas.
Wearing traditional dress, Halima Jomhur, 60, was waiting for her son Imad who served four years of a six-and-a-half year sentence in Israel.
"He was arrested 10 days before his wedding. His financee is still waiting for him and the first thing we're going to do is marry them," she said.
"This is a huge joy but it will only be complete when all our prisoners are released," she said, from the village of Beit Annan in the Ramallah area.
Getting onto buses in Israel, the prisoners approved for release, sporting fresh haircuts and carrying plastic bags with their belongings, flashed victory signs to the gathered journalists.
"We have begun to free 256 prisoners, including six women," Ian Domnitz, a spokesman for the Israeli prisons authority, told AFP at Ketziot as the buses pulled out under heavy guard just before 0400 GMT.
"We are very happy to be freed today," one man told AFP before boarding an armoured bus, its windows replaced by metal sheets.
The six women prisoners were also being transferred to Beitunya from the Hasharon prison in Tel Aviv.
Israel agreed to release the 256 as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Abbas in his struggle for power with the Islamist Hamas, following the group's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.
The prisoners include 11 minors and for the most part belong to Abbas's pragmatic Fatah party that has been locked in a power struggle with Hamas since losing a general election to the Islamist movement in 2006.
None of them have "blood on their hands," meaning involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis, and all had to sign a "commitment not to be involved in terror" prior to their release.
The most high-profile prisoner being freed is Abdelrahim Malluh, the 60-year-old deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced two years later to nine years in jail for belonging to a terror group.
The first two buses carrying handcuffed men from Israel's Ketziot prison in the Negev desert arrived at the Beitunya checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank political capital of Ramallah just after 0700 GMT, an AFP reporter said.
The prisoners were then to be formally handed over to the Palestinian authorities before being driven to the Muqataa, the Palestinian Authority leadership compound, where Abbas was waiting to give them a heroes' welcome.
Friday's prisoner release is the biggest by Israel since 2005, when 500 Palestinians were freed in February and another 400 in June.
Hundreds of wellwishers and relatives flocked to Beitunya, carrying the Palestinian flag, banners of Abbas's Fatah party and its armed offshoot, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and pictures of Abbas.
Wearing traditional dress, Halima Jomhur, 60, was waiting for her son Imad who served four years of a six-and-a-half year sentence in Israel.
"He was arrested 10 days before his wedding. His financee is still waiting for him and the first thing we're going to do is marry them," she said.
"This is a huge joy but it will only be complete when all our prisoners are released," she said, from the village of Beit Annan in the Ramallah area.
Getting onto buses in Israel, the prisoners approved for release, sporting fresh haircuts and carrying plastic bags with their belongings, flashed victory signs to the gathered journalists.
"We have begun to free 256 prisoners, including six women," Ian Domnitz, a spokesman for the Israeli prisons authority, told AFP at Ketziot as the buses pulled out under heavy guard just before 0400 GMT.
"We are very happy to be freed today," one man told AFP before boarding an armoured bus, its windows replaced by metal sheets.
The six women prisoners were also being transferred to Beitunya from the Hasharon prison in Tel Aviv.
Israel agreed to release the 256 as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Abbas in his struggle for power with the Islamist Hamas, following the group's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.
The prisoners include 11 minors and for the most part belong to Abbas's pragmatic Fatah party that has been locked in a power struggle with Hamas since losing a general election to the Islamist movement in 2006.
None of them have "blood on their hands," meaning involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis, and all had to sign a "commitment not to be involved in terror" prior to their release.
The most high-profile prisoner being freed is Abdelrahim Malluh, the 60-year-old deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced two years later to nine years in jail for belonging to a terror group.