Olmert promises to free 250 Palestinian prisoners
By Adam Entous
JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Monday to free 250 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas Islamists who control Gaza.
The prisoners, a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinians held, will be freed before next month's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israeli and Palestinian officials said after Olmert and Abbas met.
Israeli spokesman David Baker called it a "goodwill gesture" to Abbas, who launched peace talks with Olmert a year ago after the violent takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas.
Baker said Israel would release prisoners from the ranks of Abbas's secular Fatah faction and other non-Islamist groups.
The U.S.-sponsored talks, rejected by Hamas, have been bogged down from the start over violence along the Gaza frontier and, primarily, over Jewish settlement building.
Israel did not say if it would free high-profile Fatah inmates such as uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas as Palestinian president.
Abbas faces a balancing act in the Gaza Strip. He must condemn an Israeli-led blockade for making life harder for 1.5 million Palestinians, but he may benefit if it weakens Hamas.
In their talks in Jerusalem, Abbas urged Israel to abide by a 5-month-old, Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas that came close to collapse during two-weeks of cross-border violence.
Abbas had termed Israel's tightened blockade of the Gaza Strip a "war crime". Israeli officials blamed cross-border rocket fire by Hamas and other groups for the escalation.
Olmert told Abbas there was "no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip", and Israel would not let one develop.
Before they met, Israel opened one of Gaza's main border crossings for the first time in two weeks, allowing in 30 truckloads of humanitarian supplies.
Journalists and some diplomats were still barred entry.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ran out of food supplies last week for 750,000 Palestinians, sent in meat and powdered milk on Monday. "It will last a matter of days. But then what?" spokesman Christopher Gunness said.
Israel had not allowed UNRWA and other agencies to bring in supplies since Nov. 4, when its troops raided the impoverished coastal enclave to destroy what the army described as a tunnel built by militants trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
Over the two weeks of cross-border fighting that followed, more than a dozen Palestinian fighters were killed.
Gaza militants responded with rocket salvoes -- including a dozen on Monday. These attacks caused few injuries and little damage, but Olmert said they were intolerable.
As well as blocking food trucks, Israel has held up fuel deliveries to Gaza's sole power plant, causing blackouts.
Israel and Hamas have both signalled they want to restore the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which began on June 19.
Olmert is Israel's caretaker prime minister pending an election in February. Abbas's political future is clouded by Hamas's insistence that his term ends in January. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans)
JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Monday to free 250 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas Islamists who control Gaza.
The prisoners, a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinians held, will be freed before next month's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israeli and Palestinian officials said after Olmert and Abbas met.
Israeli spokesman David Baker called it a "goodwill gesture" to Abbas, who launched peace talks with Olmert a year ago after the violent takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas.
Baker said Israel would release prisoners from the ranks of Abbas's secular Fatah faction and other non-Islamist groups.
The U.S.-sponsored talks, rejected by Hamas, have been bogged down from the start over violence along the Gaza frontier and, primarily, over Jewish settlement building.
Israel did not say if it would free high-profile Fatah inmates such as uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas as Palestinian president.
Abbas faces a balancing act in the Gaza Strip. He must condemn an Israeli-led blockade for making life harder for 1.5 million Palestinians, but he may benefit if it weakens Hamas.
In their talks in Jerusalem, Abbas urged Israel to abide by a 5-month-old, Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas that came close to collapse during two-weeks of cross-border violence.
Abbas had termed Israel's tightened blockade of the Gaza Strip a "war crime". Israeli officials blamed cross-border rocket fire by Hamas and other groups for the escalation.
Olmert told Abbas there was "no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip", and Israel would not let one develop.
Before they met, Israel opened one of Gaza's main border crossings for the first time in two weeks, allowing in 30 truckloads of humanitarian supplies.
Journalists and some diplomats were still barred entry.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ran out of food supplies last week for 750,000 Palestinians, sent in meat and powdered milk on Monday. "It will last a matter of days. But then what?" spokesman Christopher Gunness said.
Israel had not allowed UNRWA and other agencies to bring in supplies since Nov. 4, when its troops raided the impoverished coastal enclave to destroy what the army described as a tunnel built by militants trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
Over the two weeks of cross-border fighting that followed, more than a dozen Palestinian fighters were killed.
Gaza militants responded with rocket salvoes -- including a dozen on Monday. These attacks caused few injuries and little damage, but Olmert said they were intolerable.
As well as blocking food trucks, Israel has held up fuel deliveries to Gaza's sole power plant, causing blackouts.
Israel and Hamas have both signalled they want to restore the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which began on June 19.
Olmert is Israel's caretaker prime minister pending an election in February. Abbas's political future is clouded by Hamas's insistence that his term ends in January. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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