Israel to Release 250 Palestinian Prisoners

Palestinian women holds framed pictures of various relatives, which are reported to be held in Israeli jails during a weekly protest demanding the release of prisoners outside the Red Cross office in Gaza City Monday, July, 16, 2007. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were to meet in Jerusalem Monday, with the international community looking over their shoulders and trying to nudge the two sides to talk about the core issues blocking the way to a fully-fledged peace treaty and Palestinian statehood. Olmert recently pledged to free 250 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and improve life in the West Bank, where Abbas' Fatah rules, while Hamas holds sway in the politically and economically isolated Gaza Strip.(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa - AP)

JERUSALEM, July 16 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting here Monday that Israel would proceed with the promised release of 250 Palestinian prisoners later this week, but neither side reported tangible progress in restarting a formal peace process.

Most of the prisoners on the proposed list are from Abbas's Fatah party, whose militia and security forces were defeated last month in the Gaza Strip by the rival Hamas movement. Coupled with a provisional amnesty agreement offered to nearly 200 wanted Fatah militiamen in the West Bank, Olmert's proposals represent incremental steps intended to improve Abbas's political standing within the fractured Palestinian electorate.

But Palestinian officials had hoped for more from the meeting, the first between the two men since a summit in Egypt last month when Olmert promised to release the 250 prisoners, a tiny proportion of the roughly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners that Israel holds.

In an interview published Monday in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Israeli gestures would not benefit Palestinian moderates unless Olmert began formal negotiations over the creation of a Palestinian state. Such talks have not been held since January 2001.

"In order to rebuild the faith of the Palestinian and Israeli publics in the peace process, we must tackle the short term and long term simultaneously," said Fayyad, a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official. "Who are we supposed to have an agreement with? Ourselves?"

The roughly two-hour meeting came as Olmert, whose own domestic standing is weak, is facing pressure from the Bush administration and the two Arab countries that recognize Israel to help Abbas at a time when his Fatah party has yet to dispel doubts among many Palestinians over its competence and honesty.

In recent weeks, Olmert has released some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenue that Israel froze following Hamas's 2006 victory in parliamentary elections. Abbas has used the money to pay more than 165,000 civil servants and security officers a portion of their back wages.

More recently, Olmert promised nearly 200 Fatah gunmen in the West Bank a three-month trial amnesty if they turn in their weapons and sign pledges not to attack Israel.

Most of the men on the list, who Israeli officials say represent nearly all the Fatah gunmen wanted by Israeli security forces in the West Bank, have agreed to do so. Unlike Hamas, Fatah has recognized Israel's right to exist.

Olmert has also granted temporary visas to two prominent members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the political umbrella group that represents Palestinians inside and outside the territories.

Leaders of the organization, which does not include Hamas, are scheduled to meet in the West Bank city of Ramallah later this week to discuss Abbas's moves. But it is unclear whether Farouk Kaddoumi , Fatah's general secretary and a longtime critic of the 1993 Oslo accords with Israel, and Nayef Hawatmeh, , chairman of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, will attend.

Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman, called Israel's moves "measured steps across a broad spectrum" but acknowledged Abbas's greater sense of urgency to begin peace talks. She said the one-on-one session Monday between Olmert and Abbas, which lasted about an hour, touched on ways to begin negotiations.

"The Palestinians wants this to go faster, Israel wants it to go slower, and what you are seeing is something in between," Eisin said.

Abbas is struggling to maintain the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority, created under the Oslo accords as the provisional government in the occupied territories. He dissolved the power-sharing cabinet led by Hamas after the armed Islamic movement completed its military conquest of Gaza on June 14, further dividing the territories envisioned as the cornerstones of a future state.

Last week, the emergency government's 30-day mandate expired. Lacking a majority in the Hamas-dominated parliament, Abbas reinstalled Fayyad as prime minister and made minor changes to the cabinet in a move Hamas officials denounced as illegal. Israel, the United States, and the European Union classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Hamas is essentially running a parallel government in Gaza, which apart from Israeli-coordinated emergency deliveries of food staples, medicines, and fuel has been cut off from the outside world. With more than half its parliamentary bloc in Israeli prisons, Hamas has been unable to muster support to block Abbas's cabinet appointments.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel plans to release the prisoners Friday unless the process is delayed in the courts. None of those on the list has less than a year left on their terms, and one is not currently scheduled for release until 2015. Regev said, "There is no one on the list directly responsible for murder, but there are people who were directly involved in terrorist cells."

The list includes a few prisoners from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both Marxist parties have a small presence in the Palestinian legislature.

"The idea is to help Abbas build coalitions," Regev said.