TULKAREM, West Bank — Israel released 500 Palestinian prisoners Monday, Feb. 21, in an effort to bolster an informal truce announced by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at their Feb. 8 summit.

Although Palestinian leaders complained the release didn’t go far enough, for many Palestinians, including mother Zahra Abu Zant, it was a feast of joy.

“Nader! Nader!” she shouted to her 17-year-old son over the din of ululating Palestinian women, who broke through a cordon of Israeli soldiers at the edge of this Palestinian border town to greet the male prisoners arriving by the busload. Nader saw her and grinned, waving madly before crawling out of a bus window, jumping to the ground and running into her waiting arms.

“Thank you, God,” she wept, as they kissed each other and then the dirt. It was one of many such joyous reunions Monday at five Israeli-Palestinian border crossings in the largest release of Palestinian prisoners since 1996.

In Brussels, Belgium, President Bush lent his support to efforts aimed at improving Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“Our greatest opportunity and our immediate goal is peace in the Middle East,” Bush said in the Belgian capital. “We’re determined to see two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”

Bush added that he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a meeting in London next month designed to help the Palestinian Authority reform its financial practices and security agencies.

The prisoner release came after a series of Israeli policy moves, including a Cabinet decision Sunday, Feb. 20, to proceed with a withdrawal of troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip this summer.

Abbas and his Palestinian Authority expressed disappointment at Sharon’s refusal to release more of the 8,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. Abbas needs to secure the release of long-serving prisoners to convince Palestinian militant factions that negotiations with Israel, rather than violence, are paying off.

© 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Distributed by Knight Ridder newspapers