Israel Prison Service names 26 Palestinian prisoners to be released this week

14 prisoners to be transferred to Gaza Strip, 12 to West Bank; the public now has 48 hours to appeal the release.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON
Freed Palestinian prisoners on bus 260 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)
Freed Palestinian prisoners on bus 260
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)
The Israel Prison Service published on Sunday overnight a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners who will be released from Israeli jails ahead of renewed peace negotiations after a ministerial panel approved their release.
The prisoners to be released are as follows. Click here for a detailed list of the prisoners, the charges for which they were jailed and their victims.
1.) Fayez Mutawi al-Khur, arrested in November 19852.) Salah Ibrahim Ahmed Mugdad, arrested in June 19933.) Samir Nayef al-Na’neesh, arrested in March 19894.) Yusef Abdel Hamid Irshaid, arrested in March 19935.) Mustafa Othman al-Haj, arrested in June 19896.) Salameh Abdallah Musleh, arrested in October 19937.) Atiyeh Salem Musa, arrested in March 19948.) Salah Mahmoud Mukled, arrested in July 19939.) Mohamed Abdel Majid Sawalha, arrested in December 199010.) Atef Izzat Sha’ath, arrested in March 199311.) Yusef Said al-Al, arrested in February 199412.) Midhat Fayez Barbakh, arrested in January 199413.) Ali Ibrahim al-Rai, arrested in April 199414.) Mohamed Jaber Nashbat, arrested in September 199015.) Samir Hussein Murtaji, arrested in October 199316.) Hosni Faregh Sawalha, arrested in December 199017.) Faraj Saleh al-Rimahi, arrested in July 199218.) Ala eddin Ahmed Abu Sitteh, arrested in January 199419.) Ayman taleb Abu Sitteh, arrested in January 199420.) Esmat Omar Mansour, arrested in October 199321.) Khaled Mohamed Asakreh, arrested in May 199122.) Nihad Yusef Jundiyeh, arrested in July 198923.) Mohamed Mahmoud Hamdiyeh, arrested in July 198924.) Jamil Abdel Wahab Natsheh, arrested in December 199225.) Taher Mohamed Zaboud, arrested in February 199326.) Sabih Abed Hammed Borhan, arrested in February 2001
The names of the prisoners were released on the Israel Prisons Service website after the families of the victims were notified of the pending release. The public now has 48 hours to appeal the release.
The first 26 Palestinian prisoners on the Israel Prisons Service list do not include any Israeli citizens. Number 26 on the prisoner list is a man reportedly arrested in February 2001, contradicting statements that prisoners were to be pre-Oslo detainees.
Fourteen of the 26 Palestinian prisoners are to be released to the Gaza Strip, and the remaining 12 will go to the West Bank, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement close to midnight.
Eight of those to be released were in any event to be released over the next three years, with two of them up for release within the next six months.
Three of the five ministers authorized by the cabinet two weeks ago to draw up the list of 26 prisoners to be released in four stages over the next nine months of negotiations met late Sunday night to come up with the names.
Officials on Sunday night confirmed that 26 of the 104 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners will be released before Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat meet Wednesday in Jerusalem to begin talks.
The meeting was chaired by Moshe Ya'alon (Likud), and also included Livni (Hatnua) and Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) a former head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). Two other members of the committee were absent: Netanyahu, because of his operation, and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Israel Beytenu), who is abroad.
In addition, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen, as well as representatives from the Israel Prison Service, the IDF and Justice Ministry took part in the deliberations. It was stressed during the meeting that any of the released prisoners arrested again for hostile action against Israel would be sent back to prison for the remainder of his original sentence.
Responding to the move, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that no released Palestinian prisoner will be deported "from any part of his homeland," confirming that although some prisoners are to return to the West Bank, others are to be transferred to the Gaza Strip.
In a meeting at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah with Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqi, Abbas stressed the continued effort on the part of the authority in releasing all detainees held in Israeli jails, stating the issue was of "top priority" for the PA, their official news agency Wafa reported.
Qaraqi, for his part, confirmed that 26 prisoners are to be freed on August 13, where they will be officially received at the presidential residence by Abbas and their families.