Tel Aviv - Israel early Friday released 255 Palestinian prisoners, most of them members of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, a goodwill gesture aimed at boosting the moderate Palestinian leader against the radical Islamic movement Hamas. The prisoners left the Ketziot prison on armoured buses which drove them to the Beitunia checkpoint outside Ramallah, where they were awaited by hundreds of relatives and supporters waving Palestinian and white Fatah flags.
At the Ofer military camp on the Israeli side of the checkpoint, they began boarding Palestinian buses which were waiting to drive them through the crossing-point into Palestinian-controlled territory.
They would then be driven to Abbas' presidential headquarters in the central West Bank city later in the morning.
"It's hard to express how I feel. I'm excited and very happy. I'm anxious to see him come out of the bus now," said Halima Jamhour, whose 31-year-old son Imad was among the prisoners, adding she had seen him only once in the four years he had been jailed in Israel for involvement in militant activity.
"When I heard about the release I prayed he would be among the released," she said, pointing out he would have had to serve another two years and a half if he had not been freed.
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 released prisoners 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.
A prison spokesman said Hamas inmates in Israeli jails had received the release with a "very tense silence" while jailed Fatah militants expressed "joy" at release 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.
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.
The release came after Israel's supreme court late Thursday rejected a petition by an organization representing victims of Palestinian shooting attacks and suicide bombings.
The petition by the Almagor organization had sought to block the release, which it called a "foolhardy move that gambles with the lives of Israeli citizens."
Israeli hardliners also protested on the Israeli side of the checkpoint against the release.
