Israel on Monday published a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners set to go free within days, some after spending more than two decades behind bars, as part of a deal that led to a resumption of the US-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Talks are set to resume on Wednesday in Jerusalem and later in Jericho following a first encounter in Washington.
The prisoners are the first group among the 104 Palestinian terrorists Israel has already decided in principle to free as part of the agreement reached after intensive shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry to renew talks.
The decision to approve the first stage of the release was made Sunday by a panel of three cabinet ministers headed by Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri are also on the panel. On Sunday, however, only three ministers approved the list, as Netanyahu was recovering from emergency hernia surgery and Aharonovitch was abroad.
All the prisoners set to be released this week were involved in some way in the murder of Israelis, and were sentenced before the Oslo Accords were signed.
The ministerial panel stressed, nonetheless, that if any of the prisoners resume terror activities, they will be put back in jail to serve out the remainder of their sentences.
Families of Israelis victimized by the inmates' attacks have 48 hours to appeal their planned release to Israel’s high court. Based on past instances, the court was unlikely to intervene.
"Shame on the government and shame on the Prime Minister and his supporters," Zvia Dahan, whose father, Moshe Becker, was killed while tending his orange grove in Israel in 1994, wrote on Facebook. One of Becker's three killers is to be freed.
The full list of 26 names was posted on the Israel Prisons Service website after the families of the prisoners' victims were notified. Of the 26 prisoners, 14 will return to Gaza and 12 to the West Bank
Of the 26 prisoners, 17 have been convicted of murder. The remaining prisoners were jailed on charges of manslaughter, attempted murder, kidnapping and conspiring to commit murder.
The full list of prisoners to be released this week:
• Fayez Mutawi al-Khur who was jailed in 1985 for the murder of Menachem Dadon and the attempted murder of Salomon Abukasis.
• Salah Ibrahim Ahmed Mugdad who was jailed in 1993 for the murder of Israel Tenenbaum
• Samir Nayef al-Naneesh who was jailed in 1989 for the murder of Binyamin Meisner
• Yusef Abdel Hamid Irshaid who was jailed in 1993 for the murders of Nadal Rabu Jaab, Adnan Ajad Dib, Mufid Canaan, Tawfiq Jradat and Ibrahim Said Ziwad
• Mustafa Othman al-Haj who was jailed in 1989 for the murder of Steven Frederick Rosenfeld
• Salameh Abdallah Musleh who was jailed in 1993 for the murder of Reuven David
• Atiyeh Salem Musa who was jailed in 1994 for the murder of Isaac Rotenberg
• Salah Mahmoud Mukled who was jailed in 1993 for the murder of Yeshayahu Deutsch
• Mohamed Abdel Majid Sawalha who was jailed in 1993 for the murder of Baruch Heisler and the attempted murder of Betty Malka, Shai Cohen and Avishag Cohen
• Atef Izzat Shaath who was jailed in 1993 for being an accessory to the murder of Simcha Levy
• Yusef Said al-Al who was jailed in 1994 for throwing explosives and being an accessory to the murder of Ian Feinberg and Sami Ramadan
• Midhat Fayez Barbakh who was jailed in 1994 for the murder of Moshe Beker
• Ali Ibrahim al-Rai who was jailed in 1994 for the murder Moris Eisenstatt
• Mohamed Jaber Nashbat who was jailed in 1990 for being an accessory to the murder of Amnon Pomerantz
• Samir Hussein Murtaji who was jailed in 1993 for the abduction, torture and murder of Samir Alsilawi, Khaled Malka, Nasser Aqila and Ali al-Zaabot
• Hosni Faregh Sawalha who was jailed in 1990 for the murder of Baruch Heislner
• Faraj Saleh al-Rimahi who was jailed in 1992 for the murder of Avraham Kinstler
• Ala eddin Ahmed Abu Sitteh who was jailed in 1994 for the murder of David Dadi and Hayim Weizman
• Ayman taleb Abu Sitteh who was jailed in 1994 for the murder of David Dadi and Hayim Weizman
• Esmat Omar Mansour who was jailed in 1993 for being an accessory to the murder of Hayim Mizrahi
• Khaled Mohamed Asakreh who was jailed in 1991 for the murder of Annie Ley
• Nihad YusefJundiyeh who was jailed in 1989 for the murder of Zalman Shlein
• Mohamed Mahmoud Hamdiyeh who was jailed in 1989 for the murder of Zalman Shlein
• Jamil Abdel Wahab Natsheh who was jailed in 1992 for the murder Shmuel Gersh
• Taher Mohamed Zaboud who was jailed in 1993 for the murder of Avraham Cohen
• Sabih Abed Hammed Borhan who was jailed in 2001 for the murder of Jamil Muhammad, Naim Sabih and Aisha Abdullah Haradin