Israel frees Palestinian prisoners in goodwill gesture

JERUSALEM: In a goodwill gesture towards the moderate Palestinian leadership, Israel today started the release of 224 Palestinian prisoners aimed to build confidence in the peace negotiations.
 
The release of the 224 Palestinian prisoners was aimed at strengthening the moderate Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas after the the Supreme Court gave the green light to the measure, following initial hesitation due to petitions challenging the release of some on grounds of "blood on their hands".
 
Initially, Israel was to release 227 Palestinians but Israeli Prison Service spokesman, Yaron Zamir, said that only 224 were freed,while the release of three others was still under review.
 
The prisoners were being transferred from different prisons by buses to the Beituniya checkpoint from where they would be entering the West Bank town of Ramallah.
 
The Israel Government, in a statement earlier, had said that 209 prisoners were to be transferred from Ofer Prison, near Jerusalem, to Beituniya and another 18 from the Shikma Prison in the Negev, to the Erez checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza
border.
 
"We hope that these releases will be seen as an important confidence-building measure designed to strengthen the trust and the confidence in the [peace] negotiations," government spokesman, Mark Regev, said.
 
The release was supposed to take place before the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha but some reports said that it was delayed because president Abbas wanted to be around to receive those released to gain political mileage out of it.

The PA denied the charges with some sources blaming it on technicalities on the Israeli side.
 
All those being released belong to the PA president's Fatah faction or other parties affiliated to the PLO movement, supporting the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership. In August, Israel had freed 198 Palestinian prisoners

None of those released today are from the rival Islamic Hamas faction, which has taken complete control of the Gaza Strip after vanquishing Fatah-affiliated PA security forces.
 
The Israeli Supreme Court gave a green signal on Monday morning for the release of the prisoners, hours after Justice
Elyakim Rubinstein ordered that the state must first reply to a petition against it.
 
The petitioners had argued that freeing jailed Palestinians placed the region at risk of renewed conflagration.
 
An examination of the prisoners listed for release showed that none of them had been charged with causing injury to Israelis, 'Army Radio' quoted the prosecutors as saying.
 
The courts usually do not interfere in political decisions but the cabinet decisions can be reviewed by the courts.
 
Israel's cabinet, last month, approved the release as a gesture to Abbas, whose West Bank-based administration is leading the peace talks with the Jewish state.
 
PA officials, while welcoming the move, said that the prisoners being freed are "only a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinians" beingheld by Israel.