199 Palestinian Prisoners Freed As Rice Visits
Source: Alalam.ir, 25-08-2008
RAMALLAH--The ‘Israeli' occupying regime on Monday started releasing 199 Palestinian prisoners as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed back to the Middle East region.
Palestinian officials, including minister of prisoner affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami, greeted the prisoners as they boarded buses at the Zionist regime's Ofer military detention center in the occupied West Bank just hours before Rice's scheduled arrival on her 18th visit in two years.
The prisoners were to be formally released at Beituniya checkpoint near Ramallah, the political capital of the ‘Israeli'-occupied West Bank, and the headquarters of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas for an official celebration.
‘Israeli' Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the release earlier this month, saying that it would bolster the Western-backed Abbas, whom he has met on a roughly fortnightly basis since the so-called peace talks were formally re-launched in November.
"It is a gesture towards the Palestinian officials to strengthen moderate and pragmatic forces," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said Monday.
The occupying regime has included in the release list two of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners in ‘Israeli' jails.
Said al-Attaba, 56, has been serving a life sentence since 1977 for killing a Zionist settler, and Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Ali, 51, known as "Abu Ali Yatta," has been behind bars since 1979 for killing a Zionist student.
Abu Ali, a member of Abbas's Fatah party, was elected to parliament in 2006 while behind bars.
The US Secretary of State was last in the occupied territories in mid-June, when she strongly criticized the expansion of the Jewish settlements, saying it undermined the peace process.
The latest visit will be Rice's first to the region since Olmert announced on July 30 that he will resign from his post to battle corruption allegations after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in mid-September.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been leading ‘Israel's' negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general.
RAMALLAH--The ‘Israeli' occupying regime on Monday started releasing 199 Palestinian prisoners as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed back to the Middle East region.
Palestinian officials, including minister of prisoner affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami, greeted the prisoners as they boarded buses at the Zionist regime's Ofer military detention center in the occupied West Bank just hours before Rice's scheduled arrival on her 18th visit in two years.
The prisoners were to be formally released at Beituniya checkpoint near Ramallah, the political capital of the ‘Israeli'-occupied West Bank, and the headquarters of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas for an official celebration.
‘Israeli' Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the release earlier this month, saying that it would bolster the Western-backed Abbas, whom he has met on a roughly fortnightly basis since the so-called peace talks were formally re-launched in November.
"It is a gesture towards the Palestinian officials to strengthen moderate and pragmatic forces," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said Monday.
The occupying regime has included in the release list two of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners in ‘Israeli' jails.
Said al-Attaba, 56, has been serving a life sentence since 1977 for killing a Zionist settler, and Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Ali, 51, known as "Abu Ali Yatta," has been behind bars since 1979 for killing a Zionist student.
Abu Ali, a member of Abbas's Fatah party, was elected to parliament in 2006 while behind bars.
The US Secretary of State was last in the occupied territories in mid-June, when she strongly criticized the expansion of the Jewish settlements, saying it undermined the peace process.
The latest visit will be Rice's first to the region since Olmert announced on July 30 that he will resign from his post to battle corruption allegations after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in mid-September.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been leading ‘Israel's' negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general.
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