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Freed Palestinian prisoners greeted by relatives as they arrive in the West Bank on Monday. (AP)
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Last update - 21:22 03/12/2007
Israel releases 429 Palestinian prisoners in gesture to Abbas
By Shahar Ilan and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies
Tags: Israel, Palestinians 

Israel on Monday released 429 Palestinian prisoners, in a gesture meant to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after both sides decided at last week's U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference to try to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008.

At 11 A.M., all 21 Gaza prisoners had crossed into the coastal territory through the Erez crossing. A welcome reception was held for the West Bank prisoners in Ramallah, at Abbas' headquarters.

The prisoners, most of them from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, were given a joyous welcome as they arrived at checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza. Cars honked horns, tearful relatives raised Fatah flags and pictures of Abbas and some carried prisoners on their shoulders.
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"There's nothing better than freedom," said Salem al-Saqqa, about 30, after he reached Gaza and kissed his mother. Al-Saqa had served four years of an 11 year term, and said that Abbas must do everything he can to win the relase of the thousands still imprisoned by Israel.

As buses carrying the prisoners rolled into Abbas' walled compound, relatives jumped up to kiss them. Some prisoners climbed out of windows, impatient to greet their families.

Tearful reunions played out again and again: Prisoners embraced weeping parents, sometimes abashed at their mothers' ululating. Some were hoisted on shoulders.

Abdel Raouf Injas, 52, was waiting for his 31-year-old son Khaled, whose 12-year sentence was cut in half. Injas said he wanted to get Khaled married as quickly as possible, and said his son planned to study for a master's degree at a West Bank university.

Injas said he had two more sons in prison. "I'm feeling good, but it's incomplete," he said of the release. Parents of some prisoners said they were eager to make up for lost time.

Israel decided on the gesture before the Mideast summit held in Annapolis, Maryland last week. The prisoners were scheduled to be released on Sunday, but the move was delayed at the Palestinian Authority's request.

Over the past few days the prisoners have received medical checkups and met with representatives of the Red Cross, the Prisons Service said in a statement. They also signed a declaration committing to refrain from terror activities.

Israel is holding more than 9,000 Palestinian security prisoners, who comprise almost half of all inmates in Israeli jails. Their freedom is a central Palestinian demand, and Monday's release is intended to strengthen Abbas in his struggle against the militant Islamic Hamas. Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas in June, and remains firmly in control there.

Abbas' government had asked that 2,000 prisoners be freed, but Israel refused. Including the prisoners released on Monday, about 770 Palestinians will have been freed since July, a number the Palestinians find wanting.

On Sunday, imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti called Israel's plan to release 429 prisoners "a joke," after members of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee visited him at the Hadarim prison.

In an answer to a question posed by committee chairman MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor), Barghouti said that Israel could have easily freed 8,000 Palestinian prisoners and added that the prisoners that are due for release were supposed to be released anyway in a few months.

When asked by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end, Barghouti said, "The end of the conflict is very near. We just need a leader with courage to sign [an agreement]."

Barghouti added that if a permanent settlement is reached, Gaza residents would agree to the solution of two states for two peoples.

Barghouti also complained that prisoners have not been given the right to make telephone calls. The complaint was raised again later at a meeting between committee members and Israel Prison Services Commissioner Benny Kaniak, after Pines-Paz asked why it was possible for Yitzhak Rabin's murderer Yigal Amir to carry a cellular phone, while Palestinian prisoners were not even allowed to hold phone conversations.

Kaniak responded that the Israel Prisons Service was the only body fighting to limit Amir's freedoms, and maintained that every extra right given to Amir was made by a legal decision.

On Sunday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dampened optimism from the Mideast conference, saying Israel does not recognize the 2008 target date as a deadline for peacemaking.

"There is no commitment to a specific timetable regarding these negotiations," Olmert told his Cabinet, adding that before steps are taken, Palestinians must halt militants' attacks against Israel.

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      1.   Israel could have easily freed 8,000 Palestinian prisoners.... 05:34  |  R 03/12/07
      2.   And what does Israel get in return for releasing 05:39  |  Avivah 03/12/07
      3.   how many Shallits in return for the 429 haters? 05:47  |  dav zee 03/12/07
      4.   nice 06:31  |  r.m. 03/12/07
      5.   Pines-Paz - Profile in Courage 06:50  |  Tod Zuckerman 03/12/07
      6.   lies, lies, lies, and more lies 07:09  |  HR activist 03/12/07
      7.   Israel will detain thos 429 in a week 07:10  |  anthony 03/12/07
      8.   Shalit. 07:54  |  Vital 03/12/07
      9.   Release of prisoners 07:59  |  Ros 03/12/07
      10.   42 arrested Sunday night 08:00  |  JW 03/12/07
      11.   Release of Palestinian Criminals 08:09  |  Lagunageno 03/12/07
      12.   r.m., HR & Anthony - Are you convicts too? 08:12  |  Lagunageno 03/12/07
      13.   release of 429 terrorists 09:53  |  Ralph 03/12/07
      14.   AS HAARETZ DIDN`T PUBLISH MY 09:53  |  Robert 03/12/07
      15.   Lagunageno..how could you call them criminals? 09:55  |  Indian 03/12/07
      16.   Incomplete 10:00  |  Maher 03/12/07
      17.   Palestinian police officers shoot and kill Jews. Abbas 10:02  |  Ruti 03/12/07
      18.   no one 10:16  |  r 03/12/07
      19.   ISRAEL AND THE RELEASE OF PRISONERS GAME... 10:23  |  TrippleJump 03/12/07
      20.   FOR EVERY PRISONER RELEASED, 10 MORE ARE KIDNPPED BY ISRAEL 10:24  |  TrippleJump 03/12/07
      21.   Israel holding 5,000 women & children kidnapped at checkpoints 10:26  |  Eric 03/12/07
      22.   Apartheidic Israel using prisoners as pawns in PR excercise 10:27  |  Arthur 03/12/07
      23.   No.1 israel could have freed 8,000 inmates... 10:29  |  Walter 03/12/07
      24.   TRIPPLE JUMP.IF ARABS did not murder the Israelis they capturerd 10:38  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      25.   MORE WORTHLESS GESTURES 10:56  |  Fargo 03/12/07
      26.   # 3 dav zee IOFs 10:58  |  Dav 03/12/07
      27.   AND THEY CALL THIS A "GOOD" WILL GESTURE 10:59  |  indrajaya 03/12/07
      28.   Israeli military forces kidnapped four 11:06  |  Dav 03/12/07
      29.   TRIPPLEJUMP If PAL`s did not use women and children as homicide 11:07  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      30.   TRIPPLE JUMP.B`TESLEM is criticised for accepting rubbery figures 11:11  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      31.   Re: Ruti @ 16. I feel the same as you do regarding 11:13  |  Yochi 03/12/07
      32.   Statistics show that these prisoners will come back to haunt us 11:20  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 03/12/07
      33.   yes HR activist: among them 3 policemen who killed settler 11:22  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 03/12/07
      34.   Indeed a joke. 11:26  |  Ben Alofs 03/12/07
      35.   INDRAJAYAGoodwill fromYOU.Arrest your Kopasus murderers 11:34  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      36.   THE DAYS OF APARTHEIDIC ISRAEL ARE NUMBERED... 11:39  |  TrippleJump 03/12/07
      37.   MURDEROUS IDF KIDNAP MINORS AND WOMEN AT CHECKPOINTS 11:40  |  TrippleJump 03/12/07
      38.   ITS DISGUSTING - OLMERT IS A DISGRACE 11:48  |  Nicole 03/12/07
      39.   429 people who have been accessory to murder 12:04  |  Roger 03/12/07
      40.   TRIPLE JUMP if IDF murderous why aren`t your martyr wannbees dead 12:14  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      41.   Palestinian Authority killed Homesh father of 2 12:19  |  dan 03/12/07
      42.   TRIPLE JUMP numbered days as rational as SHOUTING without 12:23  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      43.   # 39 If you are right 12:31  |  adel 03/12/07
      44.   Yes Ben Alofs like police who murder tell us something too 12:42  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 03/12/07
      45.   @21, erik, 3jump, where is info about 5000women and minors 12:48  |  vladimir 03/12/07
      46.   Murderous Israel give 1 with one hand, & take 100 with the other 12:50  |  Arthur 03/12/07
      47.   Tripple jump makes it up as he goes along, like his spelling 12:51  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 03/12/07
      48.   RELEASE ALL kidnapped women and children NOW 12:51  |  Mark 03/12/07
      49.   Blah Blah Blah 13:40  |  fred 03/12/07
      50.   ARTHUR "Murderous Israelis" you mean the captured are dead? 14:11  |  PETER SM 03/12/07
      51.   WHERE IS THE `GOOD WILL GESTURE` FROM 14:11  |  Nechama 03/12/07
      52.   MARK when Arabs release all Israelis not murdered in captivity 14:17  |  PETER S .M. 03/12/07
      53.   FACTS FROM CONFIRMED SOURCES: READ ABOUT DETAINED MINORS AND MORE 14:22  |  TrippleJump 03/12/07
      54.   good will Gestures 14:27  |  Jo Jo 03/12/07
      55.   overdue to relrase 14:29  |  kad 03/12/07
      56.   Have Palis returned Shalit? Of course not.. 14:30  |  THe Equalizer 03/12/07
      57.   #48 Mark 14:31  |  child advocate 03/12/07
      58.   Peter SM #52 14:35  |  seeking answer 03/12/07
      59.   In return what? 14:47  |  Brod 03/12/07
      60.   What about the KIDNAPPED CHILDREN that Israel keeps HOSTAGE 15:02  |  Jewish Terror 03/12/07
      61.   SOMEDAY, I WILL HURT ZIONIST WORLD 15:12  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 03/12/07
      62.   Free??? 15:24  |  Joe 03/12/07
      63.   # 53 triplejump 15:25  |  Lynn 03/12/07
      64.   Margie in Tel Aviv 15:31  |  GABE1 03/12/07
      65.   YIGAL AMIR TO CARRY A CELLULAR PHONE? 15:32  |  indrajaya 03/12/07
      66.   Abbas says he is in charge of ALL of the PA ..so where is shalit? 15:39  |  kobi 03/12/07
      67.   Release prisoners, get nothing in return 15:41  |  Gilbert 03/12/07
      68.   # 63, LYNN 15:50  |  indrajaya 03/12/07
      69.   Margie`s "ghost" statistics. 16:15  |  Ibrahim 03/12/07
      70.   So Where is Shallit, Where is the Good Faith Part On The Pals 16:16  |  Kipperraes 03/12/07
      71.   429 Pal. Prisoners Released by Israel 16:32  |  Ricardo Kolbe 03/12/07
      72.   Release of murderers 16:37  |  D 03/12/07
      73.   Olmerts policy of appeasement... 16:47  |  Nemesis 03/12/07
      74.   Tripplejump 17:08  |  Yakov 03/12/07
      75.   Indian # 15 It`s Much More Complicated Than That 17:09  |  Jeff Northridge 03/12/07
      76.   terrorists 17:27  |  Mendy 03/12/07
      77.   Jewish Terror # 60 There Is No Lower Age Limit 17:28  |  Jeff Northridge 03/12/07
      78.   Amazing Double Standard 17:31  |  CHGODMK 03/12/07