Jerusalem, July 25: Israeli security services have recommended that an additional 250 Palestinians be freed from Israeli jails, including members of radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a local daily reported today. The names have been added to an initial list of some 350 prisoners and include "several dozen" Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, according to sources who have seen the revised list, the paper said. An Israeli ministerial commission decided earlier this week to rubberstamp the release of the 350 prisoners who were classified as "administrative detainees" but deferred a decision on other names which had been added to the list.
No Hamas or Islamic jihad members were on the original list despite their June 29 announcement that they were halting anti-Israeli attacks for three months. Israel has also consistently ruled out the immediate release of anyone whom it deems to have "blood on their hands". But Haaretz said that among those who could be released were many prisoners who were jailed for violence at the height of the failed Oslo peace process in the mid-1990s, before the outbreak in September 2000 of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas, who is currently in Washington where he will hold talks with US President George W Bush, has faced fierce internal criticism over his failure so far to persuade Israel to release more of the estimated 6,000 Palestinians in its custody.
Bureau Report