Israel frees Palestinian inmates

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The older couple found a place among the crowd and peered through the fence at an Israeli checkpoint. They had been waiting for four years.

On Friday, Israel released their son and 254 other prisoners in an effort to prop up beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his emergency government here in Ramallah.

As gathered Palestinians chanted their support, Abbas later addressed the former prisoners and their relatives in Ramallah.

“Our work must continue until every prisoner returns home,” Abbas said.

The fate of about 10,000 Palestinians still held in Israeli prisons is one of the key areas of contention between Israel and the Palestinians, and this pardon has been hotly debated in recent days. In Israel, some politicians argued that freeing prisoners could threaten the country’s security. The Palestinians also were conflicted about the amnesty, which almost singularly benefited those loyal to Abbas’ Fatah faction.

On Friday, Hamas officials dismissed the release as an Israeli ploy to divide and conquer.

“We warn against so-called goodwill gestures because they are traps placed for us on the road, aimed to increase the split of our national unity,” said Ismael Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader, to reporters in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas last month dumped Haniyeh as prime minister and fired his government after Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza. Haniyeh, however, has refused to accept the termination and continues to govern in the coastal strip. Fatah controls the West Bank. Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. But Israel, the U.S. and some European countries are trying to marginalize the Islamic party, which they consider a terrorist organization.