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Five hundred Palestinian prisoners released by Israel

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Monday, February 21, 2005

As part of the confidence-building measures in the newly agreed ceasefire being brokered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel has released 500 Palestinian prisoners into Palestine.

The release is the largest mass release of Palestinian prisoners for nearly a decade, since the release of 800 prisoners in 1996, and comes within a package of measures agreed by the Palestinian and Israeli governments at the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheik.

"Releasing prisoners is a very good step," said Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief.

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority expressed disappointment that Sharon has refused to release larger numbers of the more than 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Israel has promised to release an additional 400 prisoners in the coming months, with the names to be determined by a joint Palestinian-Israeli committee.

Israel is very concerned that the former prisoners not jeopardize the peace initiatives, and has required each to sign a pledge not to return to violence.

The Israeli cabinet approved Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and the evacuation of Settlers from the West Bank on Monday, Feb. 21.

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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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