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Israel frees more than 250 prisoners

By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer 47 minutes ago

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners Friday in an attempt to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.

Most of those released were from Abbas' Fatah movement. Prominent among the freed prisoners 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.

Shackled prisoners wearing civilian clothes were put aboard buses at the Ketziot prison camp in southern Israel's Negev Desert early Friday and then headed for the West Bank. The transfer was scheduled to be completed around noon when the prisoners were to meet Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters and visit the grave of Yasser Arafat, who is buried there.

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 who took the Gaza Strip by force last month.

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 Friday was directly involved in attacks on Israelis, according to Israeli officials.

Earlier this week, families of victims of Palestinian attacks tried to stop the release with a Supreme Court appeal, but the court backed the government.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet internal security service, supported the release. "This is certainly an acceptable risk Israel is taking in order to strengthen the regime of Abu Mazen," he said earlier this week, referring to Abbas.

Palestinian officials said they hoped more inmates would be freed soon.

"This release breaks the ice between us and the Israelis on the issue of prisoners," said Ziad Abu Ein, the Palestinian deputy minister of prisoner affairs.

Abu Ein said the prisoners being freed had an average of three years left on their sentences.

In the West Bank village of Assileh Haresieh, 60-year-old Jamila Jaradat was eagerly waiting for her 39-year-old son Mohannad, who had served 18 years of a 20-year term. "The first thing, I will get him married," she said.

The releases came after a top PLO body, the Central Council, endorsed Abbas' call for early presidential and legislative elections.

Abbas hopes to sideline Hamas with new elections, but his high-stakes gamble is also bound to set off new confrontations with the Islamic militants and cement the West Bank-Gaza divide.

Hamas, which won parliament elections last year, immediately threatened to derail a new vote.

Abbas and Hamas have been wrangling over political legitimacy since the Gaza takeover. Elected separately in 2005 as Palestinian Authority president, Abbas has fired the Hamas-led government and installed a West Bank-based caretaker Cabinet of moderates — measures denounced by Hamas as unconstitutional.

Despite broad international backing and little opposition in the West Bank, Abbas has reached out for more political support.

In a largely symbolic move, he asked the Central Council to endorse a call for early elections. The PLO, led by Abbas, has become largely defunct in recent years, though on paper it's still the umbrella group for all Palestinian factions, except for Hamas which refused to join. Abbas has been trying to harness the PLO for his power struggle against Hamas.

It remains unclear whether Abbas is serious about a new vote or simply trying to pressure Hamas to reverse its Gaza takeover.

Israel frees more than 250 prisoners  (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=Ajjb.f1qDMOPo0P.xH6xxTVvaA8F)