26 prisoners freed in overnight move

JERUSALEM – Hours before a second round of peace talks was set to resume, Israel early today released the first 26 of 104 Palestinian prisoners it agreed to set free to draw Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

The prisoners were transferred to the West Bank and Gaza Strip shortly after 1 a.m., a move widely seen as timed to minimize media coverage and damp Palestinian homecoming ceremonies.

Despite the timing, thousands of Palestinians greeted the men like returning war heroes, with fireworks and boisterous celebrations in Ramallah, where 11 prisoners returned, and in Gaza City, where the remaining 15 were released.

Israel had agreed to release the first 26 men sometime before direct negotiations were scheduled to resume in Jerusalem later today. Although U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry succeeded in bringing the two sides back together for the first time since 2010, expectations for progress remained low.

Any goodwill that might have been generated among Palestinians by Israel’s prisoner release was largely overshadowed by a flurry of announcements of new settlement construction. The issue led Palestinians to quit the last direct talks in 2010.

Over the last week, Israel approved or advanced nearly 3,200 units of Jewish housing on land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War, in the Jerusalem area and in isolated West Bank settlements.

Israel’s Housing Ministry quietly gave final planning approval Monday to 900 units in the Gilo development in the Jerusalem area. A day earlier Israel approved nearly 1,200 units, and on Thursday it advanced an additional 1,100 units.

Most of the international community considers Israel’s settlement construction illegal. The United States and Europe have asked Israel to refrain from building during peace talks.

Israeli officials defended their right to build on land it has occupied for 46 years.

As prisoners arrived at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah early today, supporters and emotional family members waved Palestinian flags, threw flowers and hoisted the men they had not seen in years on their shoulders. The freed men were greeted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and then laid a wreath at the tomb of former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat before disappearing into a sea of jubilant well-wishers.

“I can’t express how happy we are to have them home,” said Nafez Nasser, 67, from Nablus, who was greeting two nephews, Mohamed Sawalha, 40, and Hosni Sawalha, 39, who were convicted in the stabbing murder of Israeli bus passenger Baruch Heisler in 1990.

A majority of the men had been in jail 20 years or more. Eight were slated for release within the next three years.

To Palestinians, the men are seen as freedom fighters and national heroes who were imprisoned for striking against the Israeli occupation of their homeland.

To most Israelis, the prisoners are terrorists or criminals who killed civilians, including women, children and, in one case, an aging Holocaust survivor. Most were serving life sentences for murdering Israelis.

“It is inconceivable to me that my husband’s killer is being released,” Bella Beker told Israel Radio on Tuesday. She is the widow of David Beker, a citrus farmer from Rishon LeZion who was stabbed in 1994 by Barbakh Faiz Rajab Madhat of the Gaza Strip. Madhat, who was sentenced to life in jail, was released Wednesday.

“They will go home,” she said. “They will dance and celebrate while we will be here, crying for our loss.”

Also Tuesday, militants from the Sinai Peninsula fired a rocket at the southern Israel town of Eilat, but the projectile was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system.

It marked the first time Iron Dome took down a rocket headed for the resort city since the system was deployed around Eilat in April.

In a statement carried by Israeli media, the Islamist Salafi group known as Mujahedin Shura Council claimed responsibility, saying the rocket was in retaliation for Israel’s alleged drone strike last week that killed five militants.

“Jews will pay for the blood of Jihad fighters,” the group said in a statement.