Israel on Monday published a list of 342 Palestinian prisoners it plans to free on Wednesday to bolster a US-backed peace plan and reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, but Palestinians cried foul.Palestinian officials noted that 31 men were to have completed their sentences this month anyway, and that Israeli officials said earlier 540 would be freed. Palestinians want a general release of all 6,000 of their brethren in Israeli jails.‘‘What is this? Is this deception? Are they deceiving nations?’’ Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said in comments in Ramallah.‘‘This is a complete deception, a trick,’’ said Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan. ‘‘What the Israelis are doing will complicate the peace process and frustrate the peace supporters among the Palestinians.’’The publication of the list on the Internet was aimed at giving any Israeli opposed to a prisoner’s release time to appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court to keep him in jail.Israel gave no explanation why only 342 prisoners — 183 convicted by Israeli courts of activities ranging from stone-throwing to membership in ‘‘terrorist organisations’’ and 159 detained without trial — were being released.Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, responding to a shooting attack that wounded a Jewish settler and her three children on Sunday, said there would be no further releases or West Bank pullbacks until Abbas reined in militants.A spokesman for the Organisation of Israel Terror Victims, representing the families of Israelis wounded or killed in attacks, said it was studying the list for ‘‘any names we might object to’’. (Reuters)
