This is a good move by Israel. This will help further isolate Hamas terrorists and help the moderate Fatah.
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Israel (Reuters) - Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners on Friday as part of a U.S.-backed deal to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza Strip last month.
The prisoners, who were mostly members of Abbas’s secular Fatah faction, arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah where they were greeted by Abbas and reunited with family members.
“You cannot imagine how happy we are that you came back to us,” Abbas told a crowd of about 3,000 at the presidential compound. “But our happiness is missing something because we want all 11,000 prisoners to return to their families.”
On Thursday, the Quartet of international powers mediating in the Middle East reaffirmed its support for Abbas and for U.S.-sponsored talks to try to revive a peace process that all but died after Hamas won parliamentary elections last year, prompting crippling economic sanctions on the Palestinians.
At Ramallah, many of the prisoners released waved Palestinian flags as they stepped off buses at the end of their journey from the Kitsiyot prison in southern Israel.
“I’m very happy, it’s a great day for me,” said 18-year-old Shadi Darawshi, who was released two years into a five year sentence. His mother, crying, said, “I can’t believe he’s standing in front of me now.”
Muhannad Jaradat, who spent 18 years in jail, hugged his mother and said: “I will not leave you, mother.”
Hamas, shunned by Israel and Western powers for refusing to renounce violence against the Jewish state, routed Fatah forces in Gaza last month, prompting Abbas to dismiss the government it led and to install a new administration in the larger West Bank.