255 Out of 11,000 Palestinian Prisoners Released from Israeli Occupation Prisons as a Goodwill Gesture Towards Abbas !!!

Abbas welcomes 255 freed Palestinian prisoners in Ramallah

Date: 20 / 07 / 2007 Time: 10:51

Bethlehem - Ma'an – 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas welcomed 255 Palestinian prisoners freed by the Israeli occupation government in a ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah this afternoon. The Israeli occupation government released the prisoners as a part of an overall plan to bolster support for Abbas as he navigates an ongoing domestic political crisis in the wake of Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the 255 prisoners were handcuffed and transported by bus to the West Bank. The prisoners crossed through Beitouniya checkpoint, south of Ramallah, and were transferred to the Palestinian Authority midmorning. Some of the freed prisoners were reported to kiss the ground. Hundreds of Palestinians were waiting to greet them.

The Israeli occupation government was originally scheduled to release 256 prisoners, but Israeli security officials requested that detainee, Mahmoud Ahmad Awad, be kept in prison. Awad, 21, was informed at four o'clock this morning that he would not be released with the other prisoners. He was transported to the isolation section of Ketziot prison in the Negev, where he has served 34 months of a 68 month sentence.

Meanwhile, the factional affiliations of some of the freed prisoners are in dispute. Undersecretary of the ministry of Detainees Ziad Abu Ain said that 30 of the prisoners are from Hamas, but the Islamic movement itself denies this. Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said that Ain's statement is "baseless and has nothing to do with the truth; they want to hide their embarrassment."

An Israeli officer told Al Jazeera that none of the released prisoners was Hamas-linked. The officer said that all 255 were affiliated with Fateh, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Perhaps the most prominent of those set free today is Abdul Rahim Mallouh, deputy commander of the PFLP, which assassinated Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001, in retaliation for the assassination of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa. Mallouh himself has been cleared of charges related to the assassination.

Six women are among those released. The vast majority of the prisoners are affiliated with the Abbas Fateh movement. Most of them  were being held at Ketziot prison.

All the prisoners signed pledges saying they will not participate in resistance to the Israeli occupation (which is referred to by the Israeli occupation government as "acts of terror") in the future.

***Last Updated at 4:05 PM

Comment on the news:

There are about 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons and detention camps. Releasing only 255 of them is not a serious goodwill gesture, particularly as Israeli kidnapping of Palestinians continues on daily basis.

 

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