Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners
have been released from Israeli jails, as part of a US-brokered deal
to restart Middle East negotiations.
Tuesday's release comes a day
before US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to the region in a bid
to boost the faltering negotiations.
It is the third of four
stages to free 104 inmates that Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu committed to let go when the talks were renewed in
July. They have been convicted of killing Israeli civilians or soldiers and
have spent between 19 and 28 years in prison.
After departing on buses from
Israeli jails overnight, the prisoners received hero's welcomes upon their
return to the occupied West Bank and Gaza with officials and relatives
lining up to greet them.
At his headquarters in
Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas waited to meet the men
in the middle of the night. Speaking before thousands, he pledged to
continue pressing for the release of long-serving and ill prisoners.
"We will not sign a final peace
deal with Israel before all the prisoners are released,'' he said.
In Israel, though, the release was
met with anger. Relatives of Israelis killed in attacks had attempted to
prevent the release by petitioning Israel's Supreme Court.
The 26 inmates were jailed before
the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords, which formally launched the Middle East
peace process.
They include 18 men from the West
Bank, three Gazans, and in a concession by Israel, five men from East
Jerusalem.
Israel considers East Jerusalem to
be part of its capital and has previously balked at allowing the Palestinians
to negotiate on behalf of prisoners living under what it considers to be
Israeli territory.
The US welcomed the release, with
Kerry expressing "his appreciation for Prime
Minister Netanyahu's decision to release the third tranche of
prisoners," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
"The Israeli government's
commitment to release Palestinian prisoners helped enable the start ... and the
continuation of the final status negotiations, and we believe this is a
positive step forward in the overall process," she added.
The release was expected to be
followed by announcements of new construction plans for Jewish settlements in
the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Al Jazeera's Nick Schifrin,
reporting from Ramallah, said that on every prisoner release such as
the one on Tuesday, Netanyahu announces new settlements.
"As part of this release he has
announced 140,000 additional new settlements in the West Bank," he said.
"The Palestinians ask, how can
you talk to us about being legitimate partners, if you're going to build inside
the West Bank?"
Israeli supporters of the peace
talks said the expected construction would destroy any goodwill created by
the prisoner release, while hardline allies criticised Netanyahu for
linking the Jewish settlement cause with the release of prisoners
convicted in connection with killings, mostly of Israelis.
Credit to Aljazeera.
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