Thousands welcome freed prisoners in Gaza and Ramallah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) welcomes the prisoners in Ramallah Ramallah – Nihad Al Taweel The first Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of a deal enabling Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were released by Israeli authorities overnight on Tuesday, amid anger at a pledge by Israel to build thousands of new settler homes. ?
Twenty-six out of 104 detainees were released, 15 to the Gaza Strip and 11 to the West Bank.
The men, most of whom were serving life sentences for killing Israelis, committed their crimes ?before the 1993 Oslo agreement, and belong to various Islamist and Palestinian factions.?
In Ramallah, 11 prisoners were welcomed by Palestinian leaders including President Mahmoud Abbas, alongside thousands of cheering, dancing supporters.
"This is the first group," Abbas told the crowd at an official welcoming ceremony at his Muqataa headquarters compound.
"We shall continue until we free all the prisoners from Israeli jails," he said.
The freed prisoners placed a wreath at the tomb of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and ?read the Fateha (the opening verse of the Koran) for him.?
Meanwhile, a further 15 released detainees crossed into the Gaza Strip at around 2240 GMT, and were mobbed by relatives as they got out of a bus next to the border.
Islamist and national leaders, relatives and thousands of supporters travelled from across Gaza to meet the prisoners at the Beit Hanoun crossing.?
The prisoner release provoked anger in Israel, especially particularly among relatives of those they killed.
But the Oslo-based European network for defending Palestinian prisoner rights (UFree Network) ?said the step was long overdue, and criticised the use of prisoners’ rights as a bargaining tool in negotiations.
The prisoner release came just hours before a new round of peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel on Wednesday, the first direct discussions since 2010.?
Israeli Radio reported that the next round of negotiations will be held in Jericho, at a date yet to be finalised.
But the talks look set to be overshadowed by a deepening rift over settlements, sparked by Israel's announcement in the past three days that it would move ahead with 2129 new settler homes, more than three quarters of them in annexed east Jerusalem.
The decision by the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table has sparked anger from all ?Palestinian factions, particularly within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.?
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Abbas is committed to pursuing peace talks with Israel despite the unresolved issue of Israeli settlement building.
"I'll be talking to president Abbas today ... and he is committed to continuing to come to the negotiation because he believes that negotiation is what will resolve this issue," Kerry said in Brasilia.
"Let me make it clear. The policy of the United States with respect to all settlements, is that they are illegitimate," he told a press conference after talks with his Brazilian counterpart Antonio Patriota.
"But, that said, (Israeli) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was completely up front with me and with president Abbas that he would be announcing some additional (settlement) building in places that will not affect the peace map, that will not have any impact on the capacity to have a peace agreement," the US chief diplomat said.
Kerry also stressed the "urgency to get into the discussion of borders and security".
In Colombia on Monday, the US chief diplomat urged Palestinians "not to react adversely" to the Israeli announcement and stressed the need to return to the negotiating table.
Additional source: AFP