Hamas, Jihad threaten to end truce if all prisoners aren't freed

Hamas, Jihad threaten to end truce if all prisoners aren't freed



By Gideon Alon, Arnon Regular and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service and Agencies





The militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations on Sunday threatened to break the current cease-fire if Israel does not free all Palestinian prisoners, while a Palestinian Authority minister
slammed as "insufficient" a government decision to create a special ministerial committee that will decide which Palestinian prisoners recommended by the Shin Bet Security Service will go free.


PA Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan rejected the cabinet's decision and asked Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz during their meeting in Jerusalem for an opporunity to meet with the committee to present the PA's position on the issue.

"There is no way prisoners with blood on their hands will be
released," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the cabinet as he read from a list of terms approved by a vote of 13-9, a senior government
official said.

According to the proposal approved Sunday, the ministerial committee will decide which prisoners on a list provided by the Shin Bet
Security Service will be freed. The list includes close to 350 Palestinians - some 215 administrative detainees, 100 criminal
offenders and others sentenced for less serious security violations, among them youth, women and elderly.

Under the criteria, Palestinians jailed for orchestrating attacks and members of militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad will
remain locked up, the Israeli official said. A second official said several hundred would be freed gradually, far short of Palestinian
demands for the release of all prisoners. About 6,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails for security- and non-security-related offenses. Of those, about 2,000 have "blood on their hands," 720 are Hamas members, 344 belong to the Islamic Jihad and 136 to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. <snip>


http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/314691.html

What elsse could be expected of the Sharon Government

Mitzna '04

who are guilty of horrible crimes should be released so that they can kill more innocents? I don't follow your logic of condemning the Sharon government for the unreasonable actions of terrorist groups.

It seems to me that the Israelis have been oversensitive to rlaw-breaking and have jailed many unfairly. Most of those are seemingly going to be freed.

The murderers will murder again, if other murderers are not set free to murder again!

of Palestinian prisoners depends on the further implementation of the Road Map, including Tenet Plan security co-operation, and dismanteling the terror groups. The terror groups should be dismantled before the prisoners are released. Prisoners might expect to go back and take up their roles in these organizations. If the the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP, Fatah, and others no longer exist, it would be less likely that they would be able to accomplish very much.

in this very forum that Hamas is a potential partner for peace, and need not be dismantled!

They are murderers and terrorists seeking to kill innocent civilians.

Either that or you don't know what you are talking about.

"They" is a dangerous word and using it is telling. "Dismantling" Hamas is essentially conceding that thousands upon thousands of Palestinians will die for lack of medical care and posible other tens of thousands could die of malnutrition given the draconian situation that international aid organizations work under in the territorities. This doesn't even add up the human cost of "dismantling" Hamas which for all intents and purposes is Gaza.

What you are saying is that if a few human bombs kill a few dozen Israeli Jews it's worth killing thousands of Palestinians and I don't believe that's really what you mean.