RAMALLAH (West Bank), July 20: Israel on Thursday freed more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, who flashed victory signs to a West Bank heroes' welcome, in a move promoted to bolster moderate president Mahmud Abbas.

In the biggest such release in two years, Israeli prison officials drove the 255 prisoners from Ketziot prison in the Negev desert to Beitunya checkpoint where they were handed over to the Palestinian Authority and bused to the West Bank capital Ramallah.

“I thank the Almighty that we are honoured by the return of heroes of freedom to their home and the bosom of their homeland,” Abbas told the thousands who thronged the courtyard of his compound to welcome the prisoners.

“We must continue to work for the return of all Palestinian prisoners,” he added of the nearly 11,000 Palestinians who remain in Israeli custody, in one of the thorniest issues separating the two sides.

“I only have three words to say: freedom, freedom, freedom. There is nothing more beautiful than freedom,” said Abdelrahim Malluh, deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the most prominent to be freed.

“No one can appreciate freedom more than someone deprived it,” said the 60-year-old arrested in 2002 and sentenced in 2004 to nine years in jail for belonging to a “terror group”. Including six women and 11 minors, yesterday's release comes three weeks after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised at a Middle East summit in Egypt to free 250 prisoners as part of efforts to bolster Abbas against Hamas.

It was the biggest single release since 2005, when 900 Palestinian prisoners were freed following an earlier summit.

Sporting fresh haircuts and grinning from ear to ear, the prisoners craned their necks to lean out of buses waving flags and keffiyehs, flashing victory signs and kissing loved ones, en route to Ramallah.

After being welcomed individually as heroes by Abbas, they went in homage to the grave of the late historic leader Yasser Arafat and joined in a special, collective Muslim prayer under a tent. The prisoner who served the longest sentence is Muhannad Jaradat, detained in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years. His sentence was due to end in 2009.

“Today I'm reborn. Unfortunately my father, who I dreamt of seeing again, died while I was in prison,” the 40-year-old told AFP.

“Now my priority is to enroll at university to continue my studies and continue efforts to release the other prisoners,” he said.

Israel agreed to the releases as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Abbas in his struggle for power with the Hamas after the latter's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.

The prisoners largely belong to Abbas's pragmatic Fatah party that has been locked in a power struggle, and at times deadly combat, with Hamas and since losing a general election to the Islamist movement in 2006.

While welcoming the release, the Palestinians have said that freeing 250 prisoners out of the more than 11,000 held in Israeli jails, most of them on security charges, was not enough.

None of those freed yesterday have “blood on their hands” -- involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis -- and all had to sign a “commitment not to be involved in terror” before their release.

Halima Jomhur, 60, was waiting for her son Imad who served four years of a six-and-a-half year sentence.

“He was arrested 10 days before his wedding. His fiancee is still waiting for him and the first thing we're going to do is marry them,” she said.

“This is a huge joy but it will only be complete when all our prisoners are released,” she said.

Israel has recently pledged to remove from wanted lists nearly 190 militants who promised not to carry out attacks, and released some Palestinian customs duties it has withheld for more than a year after Hamas came to power.

But Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas-led government that Abbas sacked last month, questioned Israel's intentions.

“We are happy when Palestinian prisoners are released but we warn against using them as political bribery because Israel's so-called good intentions are a trap intended to undermine Palestinian unity,” he told worshippers in Gaza.

Since Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza on June 15 in ferocious street battles the Palestinians have been split into two, with the moderate president controlling the West Bank and Hamas ruling in Gaza.—AFP