TEL-AVIV, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Israel’s government approved a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners, who will be amnestied and released ahead of the second round of direct talks between the countries this week, an Israeli government spokesman said.
The long-term prisoners, who are expected to return home on Tuesday, will be the first group of 104 people, whom Israeli authorities pledged to release as an act of good will in regard to the Palestinian authorities.
The government’s spokesman said 14 of the released prisoners will be returned to the Gaza Strip and 12 to the West Bank.
Two weeks ago Israel and Palestine resumed direct talks with the US mediation after holding the first round of negotiations in Washington.
The Palestinian-Israeli talks stalled in September 2010 over disagreements on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. Palestinians said they would not resume negotiations unless the construction stopped.
The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and want Israel to pull out from the Palestinian territories occupied after the 1967 war.
Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to raise the issue of Jerusalem, which it says is the indivisible capital of the Jewish state.
