Israel freed 429 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture toward Mahmoud Abbas.
The prisoners, mostly from the Palestinian Authority president’s Fatah faction, were bused Monday from the Negev Desert prison Kitsiyot to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It was the third prisoner amnesty ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a bid to bolster Abbas in the face of rival Hamas Islamists.
The prisoners who went free Monday were serving relatively short jail terms for terrorist offenses that did not cause serious casualties.
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