By Prensa Latina,
Ramallah : Israel released 227 Palestinians in an alleged goodwill gesture towards President Mahmoud Abbas who said total joy will come only when all 11,000 Palestinian risoners be freed.
However, happiness and patriotism merged in occupied Beituniya, seat of the Israeli checkpoint through which the released prisoners reached the West Bank.
Israeli sources said 209 prisoners came from the Ofer jail, near Jerusalem, while the remaining 18 came from Shikma prison, at the Negev, to Erez checkpoint, on the Israeli border with Gaza.
The freed batch rode on busses escorted by military vehicles with Palestinian and yellow flags of Abbas’-led Al-Fatah group and posters of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The group was greeted by relatives that waited on the West Bank side of the border under the watchful eyes of Israeli soldiers through the fence.
Palestinian National Authority President Abbas greeted the 209 comrades in Ramallah with a kiss on the cheek and wished similar luck for the remaining comrades jailed for resisting the occupation.
But he added that “happiness will not be complete until all 11,000 Palestinians are free,” and promised “to work to free every prisoner from all factions.”
This second 2008 amnesty coincides with the end of the Muslim Sacrifice Feast and tension and belligerence between Israeli occupants and Hamas in Gaza. The release announced for last week was delayed by Sunday’s petition by circles urging to revise the cases of prisoners involved in attacks in which Israeli citizens were killed or wounded.