Israel frees Palestinian prisoners to help Abbas

The inmates, most of whom belong to Abbas’s secular Fatah movement and were serving sentences ranging from seven months to 15 years, were bussed from the desert prison of Kitsiyot to Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

There are nearly 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Jewish state says most are there for involvement in militant groups behind a Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000.

Israel’s Prisons Service said 20 prisoners were sent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and 409 to a crossing near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where a formal homecoming reception took place attended by Palestinian Authority officials and families.

“The Israelis need to release those with long sentences to show they are serious about the peace process,” said Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim. “President Abbas has exerted maximum effort to keep the prisoner issue on top of the world’s agenda.”

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched formal peace talks at the conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The plan is to reach a peace agreement by the end of 2008 as U.S. President George W. Bush winds up his term in office.

But Olmert has balked at declaring a deadline for the talks given past accords which collapsed amid mutual non-compliance.

“We refused to set a deadline for concluding the talks for obvious reasons, but we need to finish these negotiations as quickly as possible,” Olmert told his parliamentary faction.

Israel has refused to commute sentences of Palestinians jailed over lethal militant attacks but Monday’s release is meant to strengthen Abbas against Hamas Islamists who seized Gaza in June.

“Israel understands it is crucial to reinforce the political dialogue by concrete actions on the ground,” said Israel government spokesman Mark Regev. “We are hopeful that today’s release will help to contribute to the growing momentum in the political dialogue between us and the Palestinians.”

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