Israel released oldest Palestinian prisoner

Israel today released the oldest and longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in a goodwill gesture ahead of a peace summit with the Palestinians and US President George Bush.

Ahmad Jubarah, 68, was released from the Ashkelon prison in southern Israel after serving nearly three decades for his role in a 1975 Jerusalem bomb attack that killed 13 people.

He was to be dropped off at a checkpoint in the West Bank.

Jubarah was among about 100 prisoners released as part of a goodwill gesture from Israel in advance of tomorrow’s three-way summit between Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Tayseer Khaled, a hard-line PLO official arrested in February, was also freed.

Jubarah’s release was not without controversy. To Israelis, Jubarah is a killer and relatives of the attack’s victims objected to his freedom.

In the attack, an apparently abandoned refrigerator was stuffed with explosives and left near Jerusalem’s Zion Square. Seventy people were wounded.