Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners

Israel planned to release several hundred Palestinian prisoners today, but Palestinians – complaining that the list is not long enough – cancelled a summit and called for US intervention to prevent a crisis in peace efforts.

The Israeli government said it would release the prisoners at several West Bank and Gaza checkpoints at 2.30pm local time (12.30pm Irish time).

Israel is holding about 7,700 prisoners, and Palestinians demand that Israel free thousands of them. Israel, however, has ruled out freedom for Palestinians involved in terror attacks.

But the disagreement goes deeper than that. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called the release a “deceit”, referring to the fact that most prisoners to be freed had nearly completed their terms.

There was also some Israeli criticism. In an analysis headlined, A trawl through the prisons to net the smallest fry, Haaretz reporter Amos Harel wrote that the list did not include any big names.

On the other hand, families of victims of Palestinian terror attacks appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to block the release. The court turned down the appeals.

The list includes 443 prisoners. Most were to be freed today, but about 100, convicted of crimes, would be released later, officials said. Israel has noted that releasing prisoners is not part of the US-backed “road map” peace plan, but the issue has become an obstacle to implementing the blueprint.

Almost daily, there are Palestinian demonstrations demanding freedom for prisoners, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has taken up the cause.

Mr Abbas was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today, but called off the summit, mostly because of the prisoner dispute.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath explained that no results were assured. “We don’t want meetings for the sake of meetings,” he told The Associated Press.

Mr Abbas met late yesterday in Gaza with the heads of the violent Islamic groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They declared a three-month halt to attacks against Israelis on June 29. Fatah, headed by Mr Arafat and Mr Abbas, declared a six-month truce.

Mr Shaath said Mr Abbas would try to persuade the militants to extend the truce. But spokesmen from the Islamic groups said they did not discuss that.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez Azzam backed Mr Abbas’s decision to call off his meeting with Mr Sharon. “There is no reason to have meetings with the Israelis while they are continuing their aggression against our people,” he said.

With the cancellation of the summit and tensions rising, Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat, a leading spokesman for the Palestinians, called for US involvement to avert ”the development of a major crisis”.

He said: “I believe that the only way to defuse this crisis is with the intervention of the American administration to ensure the implementation of the first phase of the road map.”

US envoy John Wolf has been in the region since Friday, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian security officials. A US government official said Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will be arriving next week. But the official said no other high-level US visits were planned even though the peace plan was encountering “very rough going”.

Both sides have not carried out obligations: for example, the Palestinians have not moved to disarm militants, and Israel has not frozen construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza or dismantled dozens of unauthorised outposts.

Israeli troops also remain in control of most West Bank towns and maintains dozens of roadblocks, stifling West Bank life.

But early today Israeli forces scuffled with settlers while removing a small unauthorised settlement outpost in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, the army and police said.

Ten settlers, including seven minors were arrested for resisting the evacuation, police spokesman Doron Ben-Amo said.