Palestinians hope prisoner release delay will be brief

A senior Palestinian official said a release by Israel of Arab prisoners would not go ahead today as envisaged but he hoped there would only be short delay.
"Today the prisoners will not be released... Maybe in the coming days," Issa Qaraqae, the minister of prisoner affairs, told AFP.
"There are efforts to solve the crisis and I believe that in 24 hours everything will be clearer."
Under the deal that relaunched peace talks last July, Israel agreed to release 104 Arabs held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians not pressing their statehood claims at the United Nations.

So far, Israel has freed 78 prisoners in three batches but ministers had warned they would block the final release, which had been anticipated for today, if the Palestinians refused to extend the talks beyond their April 29 deadline.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has not spelled out his terms for prolonging talks, saying only that he is not even prepared to discuss the issue until the prisoners are freed.

There has been no official Israeli update on the last batch of prisoners. The Palestinians want it to include Arab Israeli citizens, a demand hotly opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners and by hardliners within his own Likud party.

The cabinet convenes tomorrow morning for its weekly meeting.
Palestinian official Jibril Rajub, a member of Fatah's central committee, told AFP yesterday that "the Israeli government has informed us through the American mediator that it will not abide with its commitment to release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 29."
Rajub called the Israeli move a "slap in the face of the US administration and its efforts," and said the Palestinians would resume their international diplomatic offensive against Israel as a consequence.
"Not releasing the prisoners will mark the beginning of the efforts in the international community to challenge the legality of the occupation," he said.