By Xinhua,
Ramallah : Ashraf el-Ajrami, Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs in the caretaker government led by Salam Fayyad said on Saturday Israel will release 199 Palestinian prisoners from its jails on Monday morning.
El-Ajrami told reporters in Ramallah that the prisoners were supposed to be released on Friday, but their release was postponed until Monday morning due to technical problems.
In their meeting held in Jerusalem last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel decided to release 199 prisoners from its jails as a goodwill gesture to strengthen Abbas.
“Busses full of the freed Palestinian prisoners will arrive on Monday morning at Bitonia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Then they will be carried to al-Muqata’a to meet with President Abbas,” said El-Ajrami.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will hold an official ceremony to celebrate the release of the prisoners on Monday when Abbas and other PNA officials will receive the freed prisoners, he added.
El-Ajrami said among the 199-prisoner list is two prisoners who spent more than 30 years in Israeli prisons, Said el-Ataba and Fatah legislator Abu Ali Yatta, as well as some patients.
According to official figures, Israel holds over than 11,000 prisoners in its jails, most of whom were arrested during the Intifada which erupted against Israel in the Palestinian territories in late September 2000.
Taher al-Noono, a spokesman for the deposed Hamas unity government based in the Gaza Strip, has earlier welcomed the release of any Palestinian prisoner from the Israeli jails, adding that Israel must free all the prisoners regardless of their political affiliation.