RAMALLAH, West Bank—Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners to a hero's welcome in the West Bank on Monday, saying it hoped the release would bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S.-sponsored peace efforts.
The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, Said al-Atabeh, 57, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), was among those released.
"This is a great joy for our mothers and our people but it remains a small step because we left behind us thousands of prisoners," Atabeh said.
Atabeh was arrested in 1977 and sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of involvement in bombings that killed an Israeli woman and wounded dozens of people.
The release got under way just hours before the planned arrival in Israel of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will try to spur progress towards a peace deal that Washington says it still aims to achieve by year's end.
"It's not easy to release prisoners, especially prisoners that were involved directly in terrorist acts against innocent civilians," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Wearing shirts emblazoned with pictures of Abbas and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, some of the released prisoners flashed V-for-Victory signs as they leaned out of windows of buses that took them from Ofer prison to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Cheering crowds waved Palestinian flags and danced in the street to welcome the 194 men and four women, who were received at a ceremony at the Palestinian Authority compound in Ramallah.
"There is no doubt that we seek peace and we are trying to seek our goals -- and there won't be peace without the release of all prisoners," Abbas said at the celebration.
Some 11,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and securing their release is a highly emotive issue in Palestinian society, which regards them as symbols of resistance to occupation.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
Initially 199 prisoners had been slated to go free. But one was kept in jail over a separate criminal charge, Israeli Prison Services spokesman Yaron Zamir said.
Several Israeli cabinet ministers had opposed freeing Palestinians "with blood on their hands", an Israeli term for attacks that caused Israeli casualties, but a ministerial committee approved the list a week ago.
About half of the prisoners on a release list published by Israel were to have completed their sentences next year, but 43 had at least five more years to serve. Offences listed next to prisoners' names ranged from stone-throwing to shooting attacks.
