BICOM

A ministerial committee approved a list of twenty six long-term Palestinian prisoners set for release late tonight, as part of an agreement to resume peace talks made earlier this year. Most of the prisoners are serving life sentences for murder.

On Saturday night, the committee agreed the names and immediately published them on the Israel Prisons Service website. Israel has already released two groups of long-term Palestinian prisoners as part of a staged release of 104 prisoners, which Israel agreed in July in order to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks.

All of the prisoners were convicted before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. They include Muammar Mahmoud and Salah Ibrahim, convicted of murdering Menahem Stern, a history professor at Hebrew University in 1989; Yakoub Ramadan, convicted of the murder of 38-year-old mother of seven Sara Sharon in 199; and Barham Nasser who stabbed his employer, father of nine Morris Edri, to death in 1993.

Members of the families of the prisoners’ victims are expected to launch a last-ditch High Court appeal this morning against the release, although it is almost certain to be rejected. Protestors opposing the release demonstrated outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem last night.

The prisoners, seventeen from the West Bank, three from the Gaza Strip and six from East Jerusalem are expected to be brought to Ofer Prison near Ramallah at around 1am for identification and medical checks by the Red Cross. The Gazan prisoners will be transported to the Erez Crossing and will then travel to a celebration at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The West Bank prisoners will attend a celebration alongside Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah before returning to their homes.