The Israeli High Court rejected an appealed filed by “the Legal Center for Terror researches” against the release of 398 Palestinian detainees.
The center claims that the detainees did not serve two-thirds of their sentence, and that released Hamas supporters will not be helpful to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazin.
On Thursday at dawn, the Israeli authorities gathered the detainees in preparation to transport them by busses to military checkpoints on roads leading to the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in order to release them.
18 detainees will be released at the Eretz crossing in the Gaza Strip, 380 in the West Bank; 135 detainees on Tarqoumia checkpoint near Hebron, 77 on Betunia – Ramallah checkpoint, 135 on checkpoint number 700 – Tulkarem, 33 on Salem checkpoint, Jenin.
Israeli pledged during the Sharm al-Sheikh summit, in Egypt to release 900 detainees, 500 detainees were released in February directly after the summit, but Sharon delayed the release of the remaining 400 detainees after claming that the P.A did not conduct enough efforts to disarm the resistance.
P.A officials said that Israel is using the release of the detainees for media purposes, and that the Israeli government did not allow the Palestinian Authority to provide any names of detainees to be released.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Wednesday that the release came after the Israeli ministerial committee approved it earlier last week, and “reflects the continuous cooperation with the P.A”.
Sufian abu Zayda, P.A Minister of Detainees Affairs said that this step is not enough, and that the Israelis do not seem to be serious in dealing with the P.A.
8000 detainees are imprisoned in Israeli detentions and prisons, some of them were arrested before the Oslo agreement in 1993.
Also, there are children, women, and aged detainees in addition to political leaders who are still imprisoned in several Israeli detentions and prisons.
