Israel releases 200 Palestinians

ISRAEL freed nearly 200 jailed Palestinians yesterday — including a militant mastermind from the 1970s — in a goodwill gesture just hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began her latest peace mission to the region.

The prisoners received a hero’s welcome upon their return to the West Bank, where thousands joined celebrations at the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and elsewhere across the West Bank.

“We will not rest until the prisoners are freed and the jails are empty,” Abbas told the cheering crowd.