151 Arab Inmates Freed From Israeli Jails

Israel set its interim peace deal with the Palestinians back on track Friday with the release of 151 Arab security prisoners and a planned weekend opening of a land link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Cheering relatives clambered up the sides of buses to touch the freed prisoners as they pulled into drop-off points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The prisoners leaned out of windows, flashing victory signs, their hands still bound in plastic cuffs.

“Mother, he’s out!” a teenage boy shouted into a cellular phone when he saw his brother.

However, negotiations for a final peace accord will not begin until Prime Minister Ehud Barak decides on Israel’s strategy for the talks, despite a February deadline for a framework agreement, his spokeswoman said.

Palestinian frustration over the delays has been mitigated by the interim accords’ tangible successes--such as Friday’s release of 109 Palestinians and 42 inmates from Arab countries. In September, Israel released 199 Palestinian prisoners under the accord, which was signed Sept. 5.

Prisoner releases are an emotional issue for both sides. Palestinians consider the inmates heroes in the struggle for independence, while a majority of Israelis still strongly opposes freeing those who have killed Israelis.

In a tent at the El Amal refugee camp in the West Bank, relatives and well-wishers drank coffee and fired M-16 rifles into the air to welcome home Nasser Abu Hmeid, jailed for killing nine Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.

Embracing his family, he said Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat personally requested that he be among those released.

At a drop-off point near the West Bank village of Beituniya, relatives waited anxiously for a bus carrying prisoners, some studying lists of names in newspapers.

Five Jewish extremists gathered nearby, chanting, “Death to terrorists.” Israeli soldiers moved between the two groups.

The release was delayed a week in a last-minute dispute over who was eligible. The deadlock was broken when Israel softened its criteria and agreed to free some prisoners belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, militant groups that oppose the peace agreements.

The next step, according to interim accords, was Sunday’s planned opening of a long-awaited land route between the West Bank and Gaza. The so-called safe passage, seen as a step toward Palestinian statehood, will allow Palestinians for the first time to travel relatively freely between the two areas.

The safe passage was to have begun Oct. 1, but disputes over security, followed by technical issues, delayed it. Magnetic cards permitting travel for the 500 Gazans and one West Bank resident who so far have requested them will be issued beginning Sunday, said Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli military authorities in the occupied territories.

But even as outstanding commitments under interim agreements neared resolution, Barak continued to delay starting negotiations for the final peace accord with the Palestinians.

Those negotiations must tackle the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--including the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the status of contested Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Although ostensibly the Palestinians are waiting for Barak to name the head of his negotiating team, Barak spokeswoman Merav Parsi-Tzadok said he was using the time to decide Israel’s negotiating strategy.

Barak was considering using informal meetings--such as a secret dinner he held with Arafat last month--to hammer out a framework agreement by February, Parsi-Tzadok said.

Because the framework will be general but will involve painful compromises, she said, it may require tough decisions at the top level, rather than haggling over details.