Palestinians prepare for first prisoner release in three years

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinians were preparing on Friday for the largest prisoner release in more than three years, with Israel set to free 256 detainees as a goodwill gesture to president Mahmud Abbas.

The prisoners include 11 minors and six women and for the most part are members of Abbas's Fatah party.

The 250 male prisoners have been assembled in the Ketziot prison in Israel's Negev desert and were due to leave the facility in buses around 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to arrive at the Beitunya military checkpoint two hours later, prison spokesman Ian Domnitz told AFP.

The six female prisoners would also be transferred to Beitunya from the Hasharon prison in Tel Aviv, he said.

From Beitunya, the freed prisoners were to travel to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, to be greeted by Abbas and expected hundreds of well-wishers.

Israel agreed to release the 256 as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Abbas in his standoff with the Islamist Hamas, following the group's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip.

The vast majority of those to be released belong to Abbas's Fatah party, none of them have "blood on their hands," meaning involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis, and all will have to sign a "commitment not to be involved in terror," officials have said.

The most high-profile prisoner is Abdelrahim Malluh, the 60-year-old deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced two years later to nine years in jail for belonging to a terror group.

He will be greeted by his wife Amal and son and daughter who returned from their current home in Jordan for the occasion.

"We are very happy, we cannot describe our joy," Amal Malluh told AFP on Thursday.

The prisoner serving the longest sentence is Muhannad Jaradat, detained in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years. His sentence was due to end in September 2009.

While welcoming the release, the Palestinians have said that freeing 250 prisoners out of the more than 11,000 held in Israeli jails, the majority of them on security charges, was not enough.

Other recent Israeli gestures to Abbas have included a pledge to remove from wanted lists nearly 190 militants who had promised not to carry out attacks against Israel, and releasing a part of Palestinian customs duties it has withheld for more than a year after Hamas came to power.

Since Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas from Gaza on June 15 after fighting that left more than 100 people dead, the Palestinians have been split into two entities, with the moderate president controlling the West Bank and Hamas ruling over Gaza.

The last major prisoner release by Israel was in January 2004 during an exchange with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, prison authorities said.

At that time, Israel released 400 Palestinians and around 30 other Arabs in exchange for an Israeli businessman and the remains of three soldiers.

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