Middle East: The highly contentious issue of prisoner releases continued to dog efforts to revive the Middle East peace process yesterday, with Palestinian leaders accusing Israel of "deception" and "trickery" after the government published a list with the names of several hundred Palestinian prisoners to be released tomorrow.
The fact that many of those who will go free are at the end of their sentences and so would anyway have been released in the coming weeks or months, angered the Palestinians. Some 31 of the 443 prisoners to be freed were to have completed their terms by the end of this month, and a total of 128 by the end of the year.
Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat said the number of prisoners Israel was releasing - there are close to 7,000 - fell hopelessly short of Palestinian demands. "Is this a joke. Is this how they implement the road map," Mr Arafat said in Ramallah.
Palestinian Minister for Security Affairs, Mr Mohammed Dahlan, called the list "a complete deception, a trick. What the Israelis are doing will complicate the peace process and frustrate the peace supporters among the Palestinians."
Palestinians, who view the prisoners as freedom fighters leading the struggle for national liberation, were also disappointed that around 100 of those being released are in jail for criminal offences or for being in Israel without a permit.
Of the 342 whose names were published yesterday, 183 were convicted in Israeli courts for anything from stone-throwing to actual involvement in attacks on Israelis.
Some 161 are being held in detention without trial. The names of those convicted for criminal offences were not published.
The list, which included members of the extremist Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups but no prisoners involved in attacks in which Israelis were killed, was published on the Prisons Services website to allow any Israeli opposed to the release of a specific prisoner to appeal to the High Court of Justice. Many Israelis view the prisoners as terrorists.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, are scheduled to meet tomorrow around the time the prisoner releases begin.
On the agenda will be the Palestinian proposal of a permanent ceasefire, which Israel has rejected, insisting a truce cannot be a substitute for the dismantling of armed groups.
That demand was echoed yesterday by Defence Minister Mr Shaul Mofaz, following a shooting attack Sunday night in which an Israeli settler woman and her three children were injured while travelling on a road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Mr Mofaz said Israel would not relinquish control in more West Bank cities until the Palestinian Authority moved against militant groups.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is associated with Mr Arafat's ruling Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The claim was a blow to the temporary truce declared by militant groups on June 29th, and Palestinian security officials said they were searching Bethlehem for the perpetrators. It was the first attack in the area since Israel withdrew from the West Bank city last month.
"Until we see how they [the Palestinian Authority] act in Bethlehem following the attack . . . we will not transfer more cities," Mr Mofaz said.
A Palestinian militant was shot dead yesterday by Israeli troops while planting a bomb near the West Bank city of Tul Karm, the army said. The Al Aqsa Brigades said the dead man was one of its members.
In Ramallah, meanwhile, Mr Arafat said that militants holed up in his compound and who are wanted by Israel, would be transferred to the West Bank city of Jericho or to Gaza.
The Palestinian leader is hoping this will facilitate an Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah and the lifting of the siege on him.