RAMALLAH, Nov 28: Israel has told the Palestinian government that it will release on Sunday more than 400 prisoners who were slated to be freed ahead of Tuesday’s US peace conference, officials said.

Prisoner affairs minister Ashraf al-Ajrami said that the Israelis had officially informed the Palestinian side that 445 prisoners would be released.

An official at Ajrami’s ministry said 429 of the prisoners are from the West Bank and 16 are from the Gaza Strip.

Last week Israel published a list of 431 prisoners who were to be released ahead of Tuesday’s US-sponsored peace meeting in Annapolis. The Israeli cabinet had approved the release as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Most of the detainees are from Abbas’s Fatah party and none have been implicated in attacks that killed Israelis.

Israel currently has more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners. It freed 86 in early October and more than 250 in July.—AFP