Most prisoners on list were set to be released within next year; Hamas denies it received list prior to publication.
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, KHALED ABU TOAMEHFreed Palestinian prisoners on bus 260(photo credit: REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)The Prisons Service published a list of 550 Palestinian security prisoners on Wednesday set for release as part of the second half of the Gilad Shalit exchange with Hamas.A total of 1,027 prisoners will be free by the end of the deal.RELATED:Polls show overwhelming support for Schalit deal The Schalit deal: 1,027 prisoners to be freed in 2 stages Israel is scheduled to release the prisoners on December 18, 2011. According to the Prisons Service, the release will likely occur in the evening hours Sunday "when prisoners at the Ofer and Ayalon prisons will leave for the Beituniya crossing and Gaza, respectively."The Justice Ministry will open an information center beginning Wednesday where prisoner-specific information can be obtained. Civilians have 48 hours to petition to the High Court of Justice in opposition to the release of any specific prisoner. The majority of the prisoners on the list were set to be released within the next year.During the first phase in October, Hamas released Gilad Shalit from a six-year captivity, and Israel released 477 Palestinian prisoners, including participants of some of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in the last decade.Earlier Wednesday, Hamas denied that it had received a list with the names of Palestinians who are scheduled to be released as part of the second phase of the prisoner swap agreement with Israel.
The denial came in response to the publication of a list including the names of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The list was published by a number of Palestinian media outlets.Saleh Arouri, a Hamas official who is in charge of following up on the issue of the Palestinian prisoners, said that the published list was not official or final.
He said that neither Hamas not Egypt, which helped broker the prisoner agreement, have received word from Israel about the intention to release the inmates whose names appeared in the list.Arouri claimed that the list was published as part of an Israeli effort to "play on the nerves of the prisoners' families."
