A Palestinian prisoner is released from jail at the Kalandia

Additional Reporting By Mustafa al Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Palestinians slammed the Israeli vote to release some 300 Palestinian detainees as an inadequate step, as the Jewish state still held some more than 6,000 others.

The Israeli cabinet Sunday, July 6, approved - by 13 votes to eight - a motion authorizing the release from a list drawn up the Israeli internal security services, Shin Beth, a government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The list was drawn up at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, keen to make a goodwill gesture to his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas, who made the release of prisoners a key demand at their joint meeting Tuesday.

But Sharon said the move will be limited and will only proceed in tandem with a crackdown on resistance groups by the Palestinian authorities, and activists will not be eligible, reported the BBC online news service.

The Shin Beth list is made up of 350 names, according to Israeli military radio, which represents just over five percent of the total number of detainees, estimated at around 6,000.

Some 215 are classified as administrative detainees, kept in custody without trial for renewable periods of three to six months, on the orders of the military.

The remaining 135 on the list of 350 are serving prison sentences, but were not convicted of taking part in attacks which caused casualties, said military radio.

The issue provoked heated debate within the cabinet, with a number of ministers from Sharon's Likud party opposing the move.

A first vote was inconclusive, the motion amended and a second vote was taken after Sharon pledged that the releases would be conditional on the Palestinians "fulfilling their commitments".

Sharon said the releases would not take place all at once, but "step by step", state radio reported.

‘Not Enough’

For his part, Palestinian security chief Mohammad Dahlan later told Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz that the move was a positive first step, but reiterated demands that all detainees be set free when the pair met in occupied Jerusalem, a Palestinian security source said on condition of anonymity.

"We told him that this is a good first step but not enough. We told him that this is very important for the people to support the peace process and Abbas," he added.

Dahlan also called for further withdrawals of Israeli troops from Palestinian towns in the West Bank after the recent pullbacks from Gaza and Bethlehem.

Inadequate

"We demand the liberation of all the detainees,” Haniya

However, Palestinian factions, who last week announced a ceasefire conditional on the release of all prisoners, criticized the Israeli announcement.

A senior official for Hamas said the move was totally inadequate.

"We demand the liberation of all the detainees and in particular those from Hamas, and we are not prepared to accept discrimination in this regard," said Hamas official Ismail Hanyeh.

But he conceded that the move was a "first step", while reiterating that the release of "all those in detention" remained a condition of the ceasefire agreed last weekend.

A senior official from Islamic Jihad, another signatory to the truce, criticized the "Zionist maneuver" and accused the Israeli government of "playing with families' hopes".

Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid is expected to meet with two Palestinian ministers Monday, July 7, to discuss the release of Palestinian prisoners, officials on both sides said.

Islamic Jihad Arrested

In the meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad warned that it would not maintain honoring the truce, after two of its leaders were captured by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank on Monday, in a provocative movement that would drag the situation further to deterioration.

A senior leader for the group, Sheikh Bassam Saadi, said that "if the raids continue, Jihad will stop respecting the truce."

Palestinian security sources also said Israeli troops also captured the local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a self-styled armed offshoot of the mainstream Fatah party.

Ahmad Daraghmeh was captured during an incursion by some 20 Israeli armored vehicles, including several bulldozers, into the village.

The sources said the Israeli forces surrounded a house in a nearby area where another militant from the group was holed up and demanded through loud speakers that he surrender.

Collaborator Killed

The capture came as three masked gunmen shot dead a Palestinian man, believed to have been an Israeli collaborator, outside Ramallah civil court, witnesses said.

Kaed Abu Shilbaya, 35, arrested by Palestinian police, was due to go on trial for theft.

Abu Shilbaya lived in Israel for several years before returning to Palestinian territory in 1997.

The killers got away after shooting him at point-blank range.

Also Tuesday, Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip early Monday arrested an 18-year-old woman who was preparing to take part in a bombing attack, Palestuinian security sources said.

The teenager, which was carrying a belt laden with explosives, was arrested near the Karni bus station between the Gaza Strip and Israeli territory, one source said.

The family of the girl said that she had left a note that she would blow herself up, Palestinian security sources said, adding the identity of the girl or to which organization she was belonging to are still unknown.

Israel handed back control of the Gaza Strip to Palestinian authorities late last month after receiving security guarantees.

Israeli Military court To Be Demolished

Also Monday, Israel is to close the Beit-El military court in the West Bank later this month before demolishing what has become known as one of the most important symbols of its occupation of Palestinian territory, the Haaretz newspaper said Monday.

The tribunal at Beit-El has heard the cases of thousands of Palestinians accused of anti-Israeli activity in the Ramallah region since the start of the occupation in 1967.
   The court was initially based in Ramallah but moved to Beit El in 1995 in the wake of the second Oslo peace accord, the daily said.

The court is expected to be shut in two weeks before being razed.

Israeli authorities recently decided to combine the Beit El court with one in Adorayim which tries Palestinians from Al-Khalil and Bethlehem areas.