Palestinians reunited as Israel frees 500 prisoners

ISRAEL freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture yesterday, a day after the government gave final approval to a pullout from Gaza and a revised route of the West Bank separation barrier that would encompass at least 6% of land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

With the historic cabinet vote, Israel began charting its final borders, bypassing negotiations and angering the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the decision to leave Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank was the hardest he had made but would ensure a better future for Israel.

Mr Sharon also signed an order saying Israeli civilians would have to leave the areas slated for evacuation by July 20. Those remaining would be removed by force over a period of two months. Settler leaders have pledged not to leave voluntarily, and security officials are bracing for violent confrontations.

In the West Bank, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas won the backing of his Fatah movement for a new 24-member cabinet after a stormy debate, clearing the way for approval of the new ministers by parliament later yesterday.

The release of Palestinian prisoners was one of the gestures Mr Sharon agreed to at his summit with Mr Abbas earlier this month in Egypt. Convoys of buses carrying shackled inmates left Israel’s desert prison camp of Ketziot around dawn yesterday, dropping prisoners off at the edges of the West Bank and Gaza Strip just before noon, military officials said. They were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives, who reached out to touch and hug them.

Suhail Abu Madala, 35, spent four years in prison and had three more years to serve when he was set free yesterday.

“I cannot believe that I’m smelling the air of freedom, that I will see my family,” Mr Abu Madala said, choking back tears after being reunited with brothers and sisters and his 12-year-old son, Mohammed.

“Nothing can describe my joy and my feelings.

“But I left behind me brothers in jail who need to be released,” said Mr Abu Madala, who had worked as a policeman before his arrest in the West Bank.

“If we are talking about a new era, prisoners should be freed. We hope that peace will prevail between the two nations.”

Those freed had not been involved in attacks on Israelis.

Israel has promised to release 400 more prisoners within the next three months.

Israel is resisting Palestinian demands to free those serving long terms, including for attacks on Israelis.

With Sunday’s cabinet vote, an Israeli Government agreed, for the first time since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, to dismantle some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built there.

However, in approving the route of the West Bank barrier, Israel acted unilaterally on what was to be a key issue in peace talks with the Palestinians, and signalled it will keep a chunk of prime West Bank land close to Jerusalem.