Twenty-nine released Palestinian prisoners entered the Gaza Strip via Erez border crossing on Tuesday afternoon, one day after 57 prisoners were freed to the West Bank.
The Gaza prisoners were greeted by a large crowd of relatives who were holding yellow flags of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and red flags of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The crowd chanted slogans in support of Abbas and his Fatah movement and loudspeakers played pro-Fatah songs in the absence of Hamas which is ruling the coastal enclave.
As many people were trying to approach the terminal, Israeli troops on the crossing opened fire at them, wounding Mohammed Salem, a 23-year-old Reuters photographer, witnesses said.
Following the shooting, the people who carried the freed prisoners on shoulders dropped them and started to move away quickly.
Hamas welcomed the release of prisoners, but considered the move as a promotion for Israel.
Minister of Prisoner's Affairs in the sacked Hamas government Bassem Na'im said, "It aims at gaining international public opinion to the Israeli side," accusing the Jewish state of failing to free elderly prisoners or women or patients.
"Limiting the release to prisoners from one faction is another step meant to widen the divisions among the prisoners," Na'im said.
The Israeli government decided to free 87 prisoners from the Gaza Strip and West Bank as a goodwill gesture to bolster Abbas in his struggle with the Islamic movement which took control of Gaza Strip in mid June.
A total of 57 West Bank prisoners had been freed on Monday but due to additional checking, one prisoner from the West Bank could not be released, reducing the total number of released Palestinian prisoners to 86 instead of 87, a spokesman with Israeli Prisons Authority said.
Source: Xinhua
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