Israel releases 250 Palestinian prisoners, incl. female prisoners

Описание: (20 Jul 2007)
Hasharon Prison, central Israel
1. Prison walls and main gate in early morning
2. Sign, reading: "Hasharon prison" with sunrise in background
3. Various of vehicles entering facility to collect female prisoners
4. Women stepping into vehicles (seen from behind barred gate)
5. Various of convoy of vehicles leaving prison
6. Convoy with prisoners driving into distance
Ketziot Prison, southern Israel
7. Various interior shots with prisoners queuing to have names checked
8. Prisoner walking towards bus, stands with arms raised to be searched
9. Mid shot of prisoner being searched, pan to another prisoner being searched
10. Guards standing near buses
STORYLINE:
Israel started releasing more than 250 Palestinian prisoners on Friday morning, in an attempt to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.
As the sun rose over Hasharon jail in the centre of the country, six female prisoners were preparing to be released.
The women were serving sentences ranging from one to five years, mostly for illegal possession of weapons.
According to international human rights groups, at least 5 other Palestinian women are still serving time in Israel's prisons for serious offences including murder.
AP Television footage showed a convoy of vehicles arriving to collect the women early on Friday morning. They will be taken to join the male prisoners released from other prisons throughout Israel.
Meanwhile at Ketziot, a maximum security facility in the Negev desert, male prisoners gathered together to begin their journey to the West Bank early on Friday morning in a fleet of special buses.
Ketziot was originally a military prison set up in the late 1980's to hold Palestinians detained without trial under so-called 'Administrative Detention'.
Television cameras were allowed inside the Ketziot jail at 6 am local time (0300 GMT) for a rare look at the facility and AP Television was permitted to film the inmates lining up to be processed for their release.
Most of the prisoners appeared to be young men in their twenties although it is understood a few elderly men are also due to be released.
The transfer is scheduled to be completed by around midday local time (0900 GMT) when all 256 released prisoners are to meet Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters.
They will be handed over to Palestinian officials at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah before being welcomed by President Abbas at a celebratory rally.
Most of those freed are from Abbas' Fatah movement.
Prominent among the freed prisoners is 61-year-old Abdel Rahim Malouh, second in command in a small PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001.
Israel holds about 9,200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were arrested during the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
For Palestinians, the prisoners are heroes in the struggle for statehood, and large-scale prisoner releases are seen as an effective way for Israel to support back Abbas in his confrontation with the Islamic militants who took Gaza by force last month.
However, Israel refuses to free inmates serving time for wounding or killing Israelis, in part for fear of a public outcry.
None of the prisoners being freed on Friday was directly involved in attacks on Israelis, according to Israeli officials.
The releases came after a top PLO body, the Central Council, endorsed Abbas' call for early presidential and legislative elections.

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