/ 19 November 2007

Israel approves release of Palestinian prisoners

The Israeli Cabinet on Monday approved the release of nearly 450 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to president Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a United States-sponsored peace meet, a senior official said.

“The government approved the proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to release up to 500 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill toward Abbas ahead of the summit,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Justice Ministry has drawn up a list of 441 prisoners, most of them from Abbas’s secular Fatah party, the official said.

A ministerial committee will on Wednesday approve the names of those to be released, he said.

About 11 000 Palestinian prisoners are currently detained by Israel.

The decision came ahead of a meeting between Abbas and Olmert in which the two leaders were to make a last-ditch attempt to bridge differences and agree on a joint declaration ahead of an expected US peace conference next week.

Israel has twice freed prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Abbas since the radical Hamas movement overran forces loyal to the moderate president in the Gaza Strip in mid-June.

In early October it freed 86 prisoners and in July it released more than 250 detainees. — AFP