[UPI News] – JERUSALEM, Aug. 13 (UPI) — Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners, freed after Israel‘s highest court rejected a petition to block their release, reached Palestinian territory early Wednesday.Hundreds of people, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas among them, welcomed the inmates — freed from Israel‘s Avalon Prison ahead of peace talks between the two sides — when they arrived in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Ynetnews.com reported.The Israeli news website said a convoy carrying 15 prisoners in vans with tinted windows arrived at the Erez checkpoint and was allowed to cross into Gaza shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. The other 11 were taken to the Beitunia checkpoint where they then made their way to Ramallah.
Ynetnews.com said some protesters tried to block the prisoners from passing but were removed by authorities.”We welcome our brothers who have left the darkness of prison into the light of freedom and tell them they are the first but there are other brothers who too will leave soon,” Abbas said. “We shall not rest until they are all with us.”The freed prisoners paid a visit to the grave of P.A. leader Yasser Arafat.The news website said a rocket landed in an open area in the Sderot area about the time the prisoners were released.Israel‘s Supreme Court, after studying a petition filed by the Almagor Terrorist Victims Association, found there was no basis to block the government’s decision to free the prisoners, Israel Radio and The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday…..
Read More: Israel releases 26 Palestinian prisoners ahead of peace talks