Israel released 198 Palestinian prisoners at Beitunya checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Monday morning as a goodwill gesture to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The prisoners, who were transferred earlier Monday morning from the Ofer Prison between Ramallah and Jerusalem, will soon be released from their handcuffs and turned over to the Palestinian Authority.

Before getting on the buses which took them to the Beitunya crossing, the former inmates signed a commitment to never engage in terror activities again, said local daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

The prisoners will be greeted in the Muqataa compound in Ramallah in a special ceremony attended by Abbas and senior Palestinian National Authority officials. At the end of the ceremony, the prisoners will join their families in Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

In the past few days, the prisoners underwent medical tests and

final identification, and met with the prison directors and Red Cross representatives.

Israeli cabinet originally approved the release of 199 prisoners, but an examination of the prisoners' list revealed that one of them was facing criminal charges and he was thus removed from the list.

The release came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in the region for talks on the peace process.

According to official figures, Israel holds more than 11,000 prisoners in its jails, most of whom were arrested during the second Intifada (uprising) which erupted against Israel in the Palestinian territories in late September 2000.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2008)