Reuters: World News: Israel hands over Palestinian militants' remains

Reuters: World News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Israel hands over Palestinian militants' remains May 31st 2012, 06:25 JERUSALEM | Thu May 31, 2012 2:25am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel transferred to Palestinian authorities on Thursday the bodies of dozens of Palestinian militants, saying it hoped the move would help restart peace efforts. The militants had been buried, some of them for decades, in a desolate Israeli military cemetery for "enemy combatants" in the occupied West Bank. They included several suicide bombers. The remains of 80 Palestinians were handed over to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and 11 bodies were slated for transfer to the Gaza Strip, controlled by rival Hamas Islamists. "It is our hope that this humanitarian gesture will serve both as a confidence-building measure and help get the peace process back on track," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Israel is ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions whatsoever," he said. Abbas has demanded a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as a condition for returning to peace talks that collapsed over the settlement issue in 2010. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas both planned official memorial ceremonies later in the day. The militants are regarded by Palestinians as heroes in a struggle for statehood. Dozens of Israelis were killed in attacks they carried out. (Writing by Maayan Lubell, Editing by Jeffrey Heller) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions