Photo Gallery Palestinian Prisoners Return Home
A freed Palestinian woman flashes a victory sign after being handed over to the Palestinians. She was one of 250 Palestinian prisoners released on Friday morning.
Many of the Palestinians kissed the ground upon crossing the border into the West Bank. The release was intended as an Israeli gesture of goodwill to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel holds some 9,200 Palestinian prisoners in total, most of them arrested in the last seven years of unrest. Now that Abbas has split from the radicals of Hamas, Israel and the West are doing their best to help him consolidate power.
A prisoner gestures from an Israeli bus ferrying released Palestinians from the Ketziot prison in southern Israel.
Palestinian prisoners posing with pictures of Abbas prior to their Friday release. Abbas is planning to hold new elections to consolidate his hold on power in the West Bank.
An Israeli prison guard removes handcuffs from a Palestinian inmate just before his release.
