Israel frees 73 Palestinians in peace plan gesture

SALEM BASE, West Bank - Israel freed 73 Palestinian prisoners on Friday in what it called a gesture to a US-backed peace plan, but Palestinians dismissed the move as a sham.

Israeli buses delivered the prisoners to checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where they were released after a three-day delay caused by two Palestinian suicide bombings.

Palestinian officials brushed off the release, saying the 73 had been jailed for petty crimes like theft rather than militant activity. They were due to be freed soon anyway and Israeli troops arrested more suspected militants in overnight raids.

There is no reference to prisoner releases in the US-backed "road map" to peace, which calls for reciprocal moves toward a Palestinian state by 2005 in the West Bank and Gaza. But militant groups say freeing prisoners would bolster a ceasefire they declared six weeks ago.

In Gaza City, some 2,000 supporters of the major Islamic militant faction, Hamas, took to the streets to demand the release of all 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

A senior leader of Hamas, a group sworn to Israel's destruction and responsible for suicide bombings, told the crowd his group would not rule out using violence to free prisoners.

"The Zionist enemy takes deceptive steps...by releasing some prisoners," Ismail Haniyah told the crowd. "We will act by all means...to free those heroes," he said.

Many Palestinians held in Israel were rounded up for alleged militant activity and are seen by the Palestinian public as heroes of their cause. Palestinian officials want all freed.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said the 73 released on Friday were convicted of minor offences such as car theft or illegal entry into Israel. A batch of 330 prisoners was freed on August 6, including some militants but none held for roles in violence.

"I was to have been released in 15 days anyway. What about the people who have been jailed for many years?" said Jadallah Ibrahim Sawarqa after he left a prison bus at a checkpoint.

Israel rules out freeing prisoners with "blood on their hands" from a 34-month-old Palestinian uprising. It has said more releases are likely but has not committed to a timetable.

The army said it arrested nine suspected militants in West Bank raids overnight. In Qalqilya, witnesses said Israeli gunfire gravely wounded a Palestinian bystander during a raid. An army spokesman said troops shot a gunman who fired at them.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant commander in a West Bank gunbattle on Thursday that erupted when they tried to arrest him, drawing vows of revenge and raising fears for the fate of an increasingly ragged ceasefire.

Israel says it has the right to conduct such operations until Palestinian authorities start disarming and breaking up militant groups, a key requirement of the road map. Palestinian officials say they fear such a move would spark a civil war.

"If the Palestinian Authority does not take care of the terrorists we will have to continue to do it ourselves. But I have only one political wish: to move forward with the road map," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica published on Friday.

Palestinian Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan met Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday, but they did not reach agreement. An Israeli security source said Mofaz pressed for a crackdown on militants.

A senior Palestinian official said Dahlan had talks on Friday with US road map envoy John Wolf in which he urged Washington to press Israel for military withdrawals.

- REUTERS