Ahead of Talks, ’Israel’ to Free ’around 80’ Palestinian Detainees

Local Editor

An "Israeli" official announced Monday that the Zionist entity "is set to decide on the release of around 80 long-serving Palestinian prisoners ahead of renewed "peace talks"."

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday that "Israeli" and Palestinian negotiators had agreed to meet to prepare a resumption of direct so-called "peace talks", stalled since 2010.
"The prisoner releases will start when talks commence," the "Israeli" official stated on condition of anonymity. "We're talking about releasing them in stages."

There were "some 80 prisoners" set to be released, all of them "pre-Oslo," the official added, referring to "Palestinians imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo accords".

The official would not say when a decision on their release would be made, and by whom - whether the issue would go before the government, ministers or just "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, "Israeli" radio said Netanyahu would present the issue to his cabinet "in the next few days" ahead of the first meeting between "Israeli" and Palestinian negotiators scheduled for early next week.

The official could not confirm the report.

Kerry on Friday gave away very little about the initial agreement.

In parallel, "Israeli" "Ynet" daily reported that Netanyahu will bring the issues of "peace talks resumption and Palestinian prisoners' release to a cabinet vote."
A source familiar with the details informed the daily that " Netanyahu wants to present the ministers with the issues of resuming negotiations and that of the prisoners, and put them up for discussion as well as approval."

According to the source, "it is possible that the cabinet meeting will turn into a [governing] coalition meeting dealing with these issues."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team