TEL AVIV, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Israel released 227 Palestinian prisoners as a sign of good will on Monday, a spokesman for a department on prisons management said.
Most of the released prisoners are returning to the Fatah-supervised West bank, while 18 of them will be taken to the Gaza Strip under the control of the radical Hamas movement.
It was initially planned to free 250 prisoners but later a decision was made not to include any Palestinians who had "blood on their hands," having been convicted for crimes involving civilian deaths or injuries.
A five-month truce brokered by Egypt in June between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip was broken last month leading to the resumption of an Israeli blockade of the border with the enclave, cutting supplies of essential goods to the population of some 750,000 people.
