Israel Frees 250 Jailed Palestinians

Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners today in an attempt to shore up the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in his power struggle with Hamas.

Most of those freed were from Mr Abbas's Fatah movement. Prominent among them is 61-year-old Abdel Rahim Malouh, second in command in a small PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001.

Some prisoners knelt and kissed the ground as they arrived in the West Bank and boarded buses that were to take them to Mr Abbas's headquarters in Ramallah. Leaning out of bus windows, they held up two fingers in the victory sign, and waved Palestinian flags and posters of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. At dawn they had left the Ketziot prison camp in southern Israel in shackles.

Israel holds about 9,200 Palestinian prisoners, most of them arrested during the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Almost every Palestinian family has had someone jailed at some point, and the fate of the prisoners is one of the most emotionally charged issues of the conflict.

To Palestinians, the prisoners are heroes in the struggle for statehood, and large-scale releases are seen as an effective way for Israel to back Mr Abbas in his confrontation with the Islamist group that took control of the whole of Gaza by force last month.

Israel refuses to free those serving time for wounding or killing Israelis, in part for fear of a public outcry. None of the prisoners being freed today was directly involved in such attacks, according to officials.

Earlier this week, families of victims of Palestinian attacks tried to stop the release by lodging an appeal at the supreme court, but the judges backed the government.

The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said the prisoner release was part of a package of goodwill gestures aimed at giving new momentum to stalled peace efforts.

"We're hopeful that the combined steps by the Israeli government and the Palestinian government can bring about a new period of cooperation and dialog; that we have turned the corner on the negative dynamic," Mr Regev said.

Palestinian officials said they hoped more inmates would be freed soon.

"This release breaks the ice between us and the Israelis on the issue of prisoners," said Ziad Abu Ein, the Palestinian deputy minister of prisoner affairs.

He said those freed had an average of three years left on their sentences.

In the West Bank village of Assileh Haresieh, Jamila Jaradat was waiting for her 39-year-old son Mohannad, who had served 18 years of a 20-year term. "The first thing, I will get him married," she said.

The releases came after a top PLO body, the Central Council, endorsed Mr Abbas's call for early presidential and legislative elections.

The Palestinian president hopes to sideline Hamas with new elections, but his gamble could set off new confrontations with the Islamists and cement the West Bank-Gaza divide.

Hamas, which won parliamentary elections last year, has threatened to derail any new vote.

Mr Abbas and Hamas have been in dispute over political legitimacy since the Gaza takeover. Elected separately in 2005 as Palestinian Authority president, Mr Abbas has fired the Hamas-led government and installed a caretaker cabinet based in the West Bank - a measure denounced by Hamas as unconstitutional.

It is unclear whether Mr Abbas is serious about a new vote or simply trying to pressure Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza.