Israel Frees 416 Prisoners for Holiday

The Israeli government freed 416 Palestinian prisoners from detention centers on Sunday to mark the coming Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha.

Freeing Arab prisoners is traditional on religious holidays. But the timing of the release raised speculation that it may be related to a report that a Western hostage may be freed in Lebanon, or to Israel’s efforts to make peace with Palestinians.

At this prison in northern Israel, the first dozen Arabs left the prison in the early afternoon. Many of the prisoners flashed “V for victory” signs from the bus windows.

By Sunday evening, the army said, 416 Palestinian inmates had been freed from facilities in the Gaza Strip, the Ketziot detention camp and here at the Megiddo prison.

In the hostage report from Tehran, the Sunday Correspondent of London quoted Sayed Hossein Mosavian, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official, as saying a Western hostage could be freed soon without any concession by the West.

However, Mosavian also told the newspaper that the United States and other Western nations should exert influence on Israel to free its many Lebanese Shiite captives.

It was not clear if Israel’s Lebanese Christian militia allies in Lebanon also intended to free prisoners for the Muslim holiday, which starts today. The Israeli-financed South Lebanon Army militia holds hundreds of Shiite prisoners at the El Khiam detention camp in southern Lebanon.

While Israel also holds Lebanese Shiites within its own territory, it appeared that most of those being released Sunday were Palestinians arrested in the 30-month-old uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Eid al Adha holiday, or feast of sacrifice, commemorates Abraham’s offer to sacrifice his son for God. In Muslim belief the son is Ishmael. In Jewish tradition, Isaac was the son offered by Abraham.

Dozens of Arab families from the occupied West Bank waited outside Megiddo prison for husbands, sons and brothers to be released. But many complained that those being freed were already near the end of their sentences.