RAMALLAH: Israel will release 550 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture before US President Barack Obama arrives on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since taking office, UPI.com reports. President Obama is scheduled to visit the region next month. Maariv, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily, reported that an unnamed Palestinian official said leading Palestinian political figures Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa'adat are among those who will be released in the deal, according to the UPI.com article. An advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, said that this was not true. Barghouti, a one-time supporter of the peace process who later became a leader during the Second Intifada, was arrested in an Israeli raid on his Ramallah home in April 2002. In 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder and sentenced to five life sentences and an additional 40 years for another charge of attempted murder. Though many sources said Barghouti was supposed to be released during the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap, he remained imprisoned. Barghouti denies that he ever advocated the murder of civilians, though he consistently maintained that Palestinians have a right to armed resistance against a military occupation. Sa'adat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was imprisoned for his role in the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, an attack that was claimed to be carried out in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Sa'adat's predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa. Israel has yet to make any official statements about the prisoner release. According to Addameer Prisoner Support Network, 4,743 Palestinians are presently being held in prison. 178 of those were in administrative detention, an archaic procedure in which detainees are held with neither charge nor trial. 193 were children, 23 of which were under 16-years-old. 191 had Israeli citizenship. 12 were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. At least four prisoners are currently conducting hunger strikers, one of which, Samer Al-Issawi, has reached his 210th day without food. On Friday, hundreds of protesters clashed with the Israeli military near Ofer Prison outside of Ramallah. On Monday, Palestinian activists blocked a settler-only street, number 60 near Bethlehem, in solidarity with their imprisoned counterparts. BN
