Tel Aviv - Israel early Friday released 255 Palestinian prisoners, most of them members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, from its southern Ketziot prison. The prisoners underwent medical checks, shed their uniforms and boarded buses to the Beitunia checkpoint outside Ramallah, where they would be handed over to Palestinian officials, a spokesman for the prison service said.
From there, they were to be received at Abbas' presidential headquarters in the central West Bank city.
The release was a goodwill gesture to Abbas, aimed at boosting his standing in his conflict with the rival Hamas movement that seized sole control of the Gaza Strip from his coalition Fatah party in mid-June.
None of the prisoners being released were members of Hamas or the radical Islamic Jihad faction, while a few were from the small Popular and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine movements.
The prison spokesman said Hamas inmates in Israeli jails had received the release with a "very tense silence" while jailed Fatah militants expressed "joy" at their own release or that of their fellow Fatah members.
He said one prisoner initially refused to sign a form guaranteeing he would not return to militant activity against Israel, a condition for the release.
He eventually signed the form, but his release was delayed as a result because he still had to undergo the check-out process.
All released prisoners are defined by Israel as militants "without blood on their hands," who planned or took part in attacks that did not result in deaths or injuries.
