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Israel's delay of releasing prisoners outrages Palestinians

28 March 2014 19:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israel's decision on Friday to delay the release of the last batch of 26 Palestinian prisoners, who were due to be released on Saturday, outraged the Palestinians, who said the decision shows Israel's lack of credibility towards peace. Earlier on Friday, Ziad Abu Ein, deputy minister of prisoners' affairs said that the U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East Martin Endyk on Thursday informed the Palestinians that Israel decided to delay the release of the prisoners, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Eassa Qaraqea, the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs told reporters "everything now is linked to the release of this group," adding the fate of the entire peace talks and the peace process is linked to the extent of Israel's credibility and commitment to what was agreed upon.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts last July led to a resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians for nine months. The Palestinian side agreed to resume the talks after Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinians arrested before the two sides signed Oslo peace accords in 1993.

So far, Israel has released 78 prisoners in three groups and the last group of the 26 prisoners is scheduled to be released on March 29 and the nine-month talks' ultimatum is scheduled to end in late April.

Israel demanded the Palestinians to sign on the framework agreement for peace proposed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and extend the peace talks to the end of 2014 for which the Palestinians respond with rejection.

According to Abu Ein, the Israeli response comes as a result to the Palestinians position on the Israeli-U.S. demands, warning " the Palestinian prisoners will escalate their protest steps in response to the Israeli decision."

On Wednesday, Palestinian officials warned the Palestinian leadership may head to the international agencies in case Israel rejects the release of the last batch of the long-serving Palestinian prisoners.

Earlier on Friday, a senior Palestinian official told Xinhua that the U.S. has still been practicing pressure on the Israeli government to release the prisoners in order to avoid a possible collapse of the peace process.

The Palestinian leadership would possibly hold a meeting soon to examine the Israeli decision, the official added.