Israel released dozens of Palestinian prisoners today as part of a deal to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas last month.
Some of the 250 or so prisoners, mostly members of Mr Abbas's secular Fatah faction, kissed the ground as they were released from handcuffs at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah and transferred from Israeli to Palestinian buses for a ceremony with Mr Abbas at his presidential compound.
An Israeli prison guard removes handcuffs on a Palestinian inmate just before his release from Kitsiyot prison in southern Israel today
Many of the prisoners waved Palestinian flags after their journey from the Kitsiyot prison in southern Israel. They were to be reunited shortly with families, some of whom turned out to cheer the handover from outside the checkpoint security fence.
Hamas, shunned by Israel and Western powers for refusing to renounce violence, routed Fatah forces in Gaza a month ago, prompting Mr Abbas to dismiss the unity government it led and install a new administration in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Hamas won a parliamentary election 18 months ago, prompting an international embargo.
The schism between the two Palestinian territories has thrown hopes for establishing a state in both the West Bank and Gaza into disarray. But an eagerness in the West to marginalize Hamas has secured an end to sanctions on Abbas's new government as well as a number of concessions from Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described his decision to free 256 low-security prisoners, most of them with relatively short sentences left to run, as a goodwill gesture to bolster Mr Abbas's new government.
An Israeli Prisons Service spokesman said that the prisoners released had at least one year left to their sentence. Mr Olmert said he would not release prisoners with "blood on their hands". More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are still in Israeli jails.
Apart from the release of prisoners, Israel has agreed to stop hunting dozens of militants loyal mainly to Fatah groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, in return for promises that they have handed in weapons and joined formal security forces.
The United Nations, European Union and Russia, meeting in Lisbon with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the Quartet of Middle East mediators, threw their weight yesteday behind US President George W. Bush's new plan to revive peace moves and pledged support for Palestinians, including Gazans.
"Just imagine for a moment if this process were moving forward again, just think how much hope there would be," said Tony Blair, the former British prime minister named last month as the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East. "I hope I can offer something in bringing about a solution to this issue that is of such fundamental importance to the world."
Mr Blair will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah next week and report back to the Quartet on his strategy of reforms for the Palestinians in September.