255 Palestinian prisoners released

Israel offers freedom

By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer

255 Palestinian prisoners released — The Evening Sun, 20 July 2007 — The Evening Sun · Hanover, Pennsylvania · 20 July 2007

Transcribed from the clipping

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners today in a gesture to embattled President Mahmoud Abbas, who pledged not to rest until Israel's jails were emptied of its thousands of Palestinians. The release was meant to bolster Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic militant Hamas, which took control of Gaza by force last month.

Several thousand chanting, clapping Palestinians greeted the prisoners as their buses rolled into Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “This is the beginning,” said Abbas, wearing a black-and-white checkered baseball cap, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. “Efforts must continue. Our work must continue until every prisoner returns to the his home,” he said.

Israeli and officials of Abbas' government said they hoped the release marked a new chapter in relations, following seven years of bloody fighting. “All the suffering, all the pain is gone,” said released prisoner Iyad Milhem, 30, as he rode on one of the buses. “But we still hope for the release of all the other prisoners.” Most of those freed were from Abbas' Fatah movement.

Prominent among them was 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.

Today's release began shortly after daybreak when the shackled prisoners left the Ketziot prison camp in southern Israel and boarded buses with darkened windows that took them to the West Bank. At an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, the prisoners got off the buses, some kissing the ground, and boarded Palestinian buses that took them to Ramallah.

Israel had agreed to release 256 prisoners, but one was held back for further security checks, said Eli Gadizon, of the Israel Prisons' Service. All the inmates were required to sign an undertaking not to engage in anti-Israel violence. Israel holds about 9,200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were arrested during the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Almost every Palestinian family has had a member in Israeli jails at some point, and the fate of the prisoners is one of the most emotionally charged issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For Palestinians, the prisoners are heroes in the struggle for statehood, and large-scale prisoner releases are seen as an effective way for Israel to back Abbas in his confrontation with the Islamic militants. However, Israel refuses to free inmates serving time for wounding or killing Israelis, in part for fear of a public outcry.

None of the prisoners being freed today were directly involved in attacks on Israelis, according to Israeli officials.

Context added by this archive

The same day's Associated Press copy as the Bay City Times printing, under a different headline, at a different length and with a different photograph. This printing carries the count 255 in the headline and the detail of the 256th prisoner held back.

Cite this item

"255 Palestinian prisoners released," The Evening Sun, 20 July 2007. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2007-015. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2007-015