Israel Frees a PLO Activist in Apparent Move to Quiet Gaza

Israel freed a long-held activist in PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction Friday, apparently in another gesture aimed at calming the occupied Gaza Strip.

Hisham Abd Razek, 40, was mobbed by hundreds of well-wishers as he walked out of a prison in Gaza City after serving 19 years and eight months of a 20-year sentence.

Several young men fired automatic weapons in celebration of the release.

Abd Razek had been convicted of planting a bomb in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and of possessing weapons and explosives, Palestinians said.

Earlier this week, Gaza was convulsed by the worst violence since the PLO and Israel signed a peace accord in September. Israeli troops killed a Fatah militant and arrested three others, including the leader of the Fatah Hawks guerrillas, Taysir Bardini.

In hopes of calming tensions, Israel on Tuesday called off the hunt for wanted Fatah members. On Wednesday, it freed Ismail Abu Qumsan, a Fatah Hawk captured two weeks earlier.

On Oct. 19, Israel freed its longest-held prisoner, Salim Zrei, 50, also of Fatah. Zrei was the first Palestinian freed as a gesture under the peace accord.

Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization are negotiating the details of Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, which according to the peace agreement should start Dec. 13.

During those negotiations, Israel agreed to an initial prisoner release and on Oct. 25 freed nearly 700 Palestinians.

But the PLO is insisting Israel free all of the 12,000 Palestinians it holds.

Unrest continued in the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday, where Jewish settlers fired at Palestinian residents, injuring three people, one seriously.

The attacks started after Palestinians stoned the car of a prominent settler.