JERUSALEM, June 29 -- Israel has agreed to release hundreds more Palestinian prisoners, including members of radical Islamic groups opposed to the peace process, on the condition each prisoner renounces violence, military officials said Wednesday. According to the peace agreement Israel signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Cairo seven weeks ago, Israel was committed to releasing 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held in army and prison authority installations. To date, Israel has released some 3,500 prisoners, while some 1,200 additional prisoners were offered release, but were further detained because they refused to sign a declaration renouncing violence. Despite assurances by military sources that 'no prisoner with Jewish blood on his hands' would be released, Israeli right-wing figures were outraged Wednesday overthe release of Islamic activists. 'The agreement of the prime minister to free hundreds of terrorist belonging to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, testifies that the government no longer has any red lines,' said a statement issued by the right-wing Likud Party. 'There are no longer any Israeli interests for whose preservation Rabin is ready to struggle,' it said. Military sources said it was probable some of the prisoners to be released were convicted of killing other Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with the Israeli authorities. State-run Israel Radio reported that Israel was willing to release some 200 prisoners serving life sentences, but demanded they remain inside the autonomous areas of Gaza and Jericho. Jericho security officials said they had not received any official notice of prisoners' release, but said they would refuse to accept prisoners who, as residents of the West Bank serving life sentences, would be confined to Jericho's boundaries.
'It is our policy that the released person should go back to his place of residence and we shall insist on this,' said Muhammed Abu Shaker, spokesman for the Jericho police force. 'These people should go back home.' The daily newspaper Ha'aretz reported that some of the Hamas prisoners expected to be released were among those deported to Lebanon in December 1991, who were jailed upon their return to Israel nine months later. The newspaper also said many of the prisoners would be released from the Ketziot military detention camp in the southern Negev desert. If all goes according to plan, the release would bring about the closing of an entire cellblock in the prison, the report said. (written by Dianna Cahn, edited by Jonathan Ferziger)
