Palestinian prisoners at a desert jail removed their brown prison jumpsuits, donned civilian clothes and left for home Monday as Israel freed them in a move meant to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Two buses carrying 57 prisoners to the West Bank left at midday, while the release of 30 additional prisoners to the Gaza Strip was delayed. Israel's Prisons Authority gave no reason for the holdup, according to a report of the Associated Press. Earlier, all of the prisoners slated to be freed filed by a table where prison clerks stamped release forms, and buses stood by waiting to take them to checkpoints leading from Israel into the West Bank and Gaza. The prisoners were allowed to board the buses early Monday, only to be taken off as the release was delayed «for technical reasons,» according to Prisons Authority spokesman Yaron Zamir.
