Israel to free prisoners in bid to boost ailing peace process
Palestinians cried foul, noting 31 of the men were to have completed their sentences this month and that Israeli officials had said 540 prisoners would be freed. Palestinians want a general release of all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"This is a complete deception, a trick," said Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan. "What the Israelis are doing will complicate the peace process and frustrate the peace supporters among the Palestinians."
The publication of the names on the internet was aimed at giving anyone opposed to a prisoner's release time to appeal to Israel's Supreme Court to keep him in jail.
Israel gave no explanation why only 342 prisoners 183 convicted by Israeli courts of activities ranging from stone-throwing to membership in "terrorist organisations" and 159 detained without trial were being released.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, responding to a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded a Jewish settler and her three children on Sunday, said there would be no further releases or West Bank pullbacks until Mr Abbas reined in militants.
Militants have said anything short of a general release of all Palestinian prisoners could jeopardise the three-month truce they declared on June 29 in an uprising for statehood.
Convicted prisoners' sentences ranged from four months for throwing stones to 15 years in jail for "activity in Islamic Jihad".
A spokesman for the Organisation of Israel Terror Victims, a group representing the families of Israelis wounded or killed in Palestinian attacks, said it was "studying the list for any specific names we might object to".
A statement prefacing the list on the Hebrew-language website at http:/list.ips.gov.il said: "It should be emphasised the list does not include any prisoners or detainees with 'blood on their hands'."
The attack on Sunday on the Israeli woman's car near Bethlehem was claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
"For now, we will not transfer any more Palestinian cities until we see that the necessary steps are being taken against the terror and definitely against the group that carried out the shooting," Mr Mofaz said.
Israeli forces quit Bethlehem last month under the peace plan that envisions an end to three years of violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
However, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said that Israel's military grip on the West Bank made it impossible for the Palestinian Authority to crack down on militants in the area.
In other West Bank violence, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who the army said was trying to plant a bomb on a road near Tulkarem.
In a move that could help end his confinement to the Israeli-surrounded West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr Arafat said he intends to move some 20 militants he has been sheltering there to Jericho or the Gaza Strip.
Israel has proposed the transfer in an apparent attempt to pave the way for a pullback from Ramallah, a withdrawal that would help Mr Abbas demonstrate to his people that the peace process is working.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
