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Israel frees Palestinian prisoners

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-16 08:01

Palestinian men just released from Israeli jails wave from inside a bus as they are transported to the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday at Beitunia crossing. [Agencies]

Israel yesterday released 224 prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, prompting joyous family reunions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Families sang and danced as prison buses rolled up full of newly freed men, shouting and waving from the windows, and mothers wept as they embraced their children.

Abbas greeted them individually with kisses on the cheeks at his office in Ramallah, the seat of his government, but said Israel should release all Palestinians it was holding.

"Our happiness will not be complete until all of the 11,000 prisoners are freed," he said. "We promise you we will work to free all prisoners from all factions."

The president said that pledge included members of the hardline Islamist group Hamas, which drove his Fatah faction out of the Gaza Strip last year and now controls the territory.

Egyptian-mediated talks to try to heal the rift between Fatah and Hamas have made no visible progress in the past few months.

"Today some of our brothers were released and sent back to their homes in the beloved Gaza Strip. We hope to God they were not freed from one prison only to enter another," Abbas added.