Palestinian national conference for discussing captives in Israeli prisons

A Palestinian national conference will held on August 29 to discuss the issue of captives in the Israeli occupation prisons and means of escalating the call to release them.

Hisham Abed al-Razek, the Palestinian minister of state for the captives' affairs, said yesterday that all the Palestinian forces, Arab personalities and Israeli peace supporters will participate in the conference which will last for two days under the slogan "freedom for the captives."

He said that according to the Wye River accord, 750 captives should have been released in three groups, but the former Israeli government only released 250 prisoners in the first set, most of whom were criminal prisoners, in order to cause riots among the Palestinian people, while the release of the rest of the captives was halted in the framework of Israel freezing the Wye River accord.