GAZA/ISRAEL: Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners amid surge of violence in Gaza

Israeli troops kill three Palestinian militants in Gaza enclave hours before the release of hundreds of prisoners in a bid to bolster Palestiniain President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants on Monday (December 3) hours before releasing hundreds of Palestinians in a gesture to the Palestinian President after a peace conference on Palestinian statehood last week. An official in the Islamist group which controls the coastal territory, said three of its fighters were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops near a key border crossing with Israel. An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops fired at a group of militants who had approached the frontier in an attempt to launch mortar shells into Israel. The Israeli army frequently carries out attacks against militants in the coastal territory to try to stop them from firing rockets at southern Israeli towns and placing explosives near the border fence aimed at attacking Israeli troops. Hours later Israel released about 430 Palestinian prisoners from the Ktsiyot prison in southern Israel in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas after a U.S.-sponsored conference last week on Palestinian statehood, Israeli officials said. The prisoners, most of whom belong to Abbas's secular Fatah faction, were bussed from a desert prison to Israel's boundaries with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Prisons Service spokeswoman said. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched formal peace talks at the Annapolis, Maryland, conference, and the prisoner release is meant to strengthen the Palestinian leader against Hamas Islamists who seized the Gaza Strip in June. Hamas has rejected the peace moves with Israel. The freeing of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see the 11,000 held in Israeli jails as fighters against foreign occupation. Many Israelis fear that such amnesties encourage Palestinian militants to strike again.

ITN Source | December 3, 2007

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