JERUSALEM: Israel’s pledge to free 26 Palestinians prisoners this month will definitely not include Arab Israelis and may not even take place at all, a minister said Tuesday.
Speaking to army radio, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel’s pledge to release them was unlikely to happen because there had been no move in the US-led peace process.
And if it did, the government would never agree to release Arab Israeli citizens jailed for nationalist attacks, he said.
So far, 78 of a total of 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners have been freed in three separate tranches, with the final group due to be released on March 29.
“The original decision said the release should be dependent on progress in the negotiations and now it is clear to everyone that there has been no progress,” Bennett said of the talks which are facing collapse ahead of an April 29 deadline.
Bennett also said the idea of including Arab citizens of Israel in the release was “delusional.”
The Palestinians have reportedly named 14 Arab Israelis they want freed, but all names must be approved by the Israeli government.
“The government of Israel never took any decision to release Israeli prisoners... they are citizens of Israel and the Palestinian Authority does not run their lives,” Bennett said, denying that any such “promise” had been made to US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Blast in Golan wounds Israeli soldiers
A bomb along the Syria-Israel frontier in the occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday wounded several Israeli soldiers, the army said.
Israel will act “forcefully” to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the blast.
“We will act forcefully to preserve Israel’s security,” he said in remarks broadcast on army radio, saying there were an increasing number of militants and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian side of the strategic plateau.
The army said in a statement that “an explosive device was detonated against IDF (Israeli military) soldiers patrolling the Israeli-Syrian border,” adding that several soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Security sources confirmed the bombing, saying the explosion damaged an army jeep as it drove near the cease-fire line with Syria, outside the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams, without giving further details.
It was one of several incidents this month on Israel’s northern borders with Syria and Lebanon.
Israel said Friday it shelled a position belonging to the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah inside Lebanon, in response to a blast targeting its troops along the border.
And the army said on March 5 it had opened fire on and hit two Hezbollah members as they tried to plant a bomb near the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line.
