Prisoners' release (Archive photo)
(Archive photo: AFP)
Prison Service heightens alert pending prisoners' release
Commissioner orders heightened alert, reinforced personnel in security prisons as preventive measure for possible riots
Israel's security
prisons upped their level of alertness Tuesday as a preventive measure against possible riots by Palestinian prisoners who were not included on the list of
256 prisoners to be released Friday.
The release of Palestinian prisoners was approved earlier Tuesday by a special ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as part Israel's gestures to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Prisoners List
Special ministerial committee approves 256 prisoners for release, including six women, 11 minors and deputy secretary-general of PLFP. List published on prison service website
The 4,000 Hamas prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons are feared to incite riots in protest of the prisoners' release - none of whom are affiliated with the Islamist movement.
Israel Prison Service Commissioner Benny Kaniak ordered prison commanders to reinforce their personnel and up the level of alertness as a preventive measure.
The 256 prisoners are to be released form Ktziot Prison, where 150 of them are incarcerated. The remaining 106 are to be transferred to Ktziot from other prisons prior to their release.
Prisoners transferred to Ktziot will undergo a triple identification process in order to prevent any impersonations.
In the days left until their release, the prisoners will undergo medical examinations and will meet with Red Cross representatives; they will also be required to sign a contract in which they pledge to relinquish all terror activities.
Those refusing to sign the contract will not be released.
If all goes well Friday, the prisoners will be transferred by the Prison Service's Nachshon Unit – which is in charge of prisoner transport – to the West Bank, where they will officially released to the Palestinian Authority. None of them will be transferred to Gaza.
