Israel frees 398 Palestinian prisoners: Two prisoners refused to be set free opting to say in Ofer.  One requested to stay behind bars in order to complete the Bagrut (matriculation) exams, and the other one refused to leave his brother who was still in jail. 

Meanwhile, Twenty-one prisoners returned to the Gaza Strip, 134 were released at the Tarkumiyah checkpoint outside Hebron, 76 at Beituniya west of Ramallah, 134 at checkpoint 700 outside of Tulkarm, and 33 were released at the Salem checkpoint outside of Jenin.  This was the second batch of prisoners released as promised in February to PA Chairman Muhamud Abbas, 900 prisoners would be released. 

While getting off of the busses many of them went down to the ground and prayed to Allah, thanking him for freeing them.  Although the prisoners were delighted to be free the general feeling was the release was insufficient.  PA official Ziad Abu Ein told The Jerusalem Post that their release would not lessen tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. "We are looking forward to the release of all the Palestinian prisoners, that is our agenda. There are still 8,800 detainees in Israeli jails; some have been there for over 25 years. What do we tell their families? "

Two would-be bombers nabbed: Two Islamic Jihad members who were planning on being twin suicide bombers in Jerusalem were nabbed on Thursday at West Bank checkpoints.  

A third member of the cell was also seized. Five other members of the of the group, already in detention, have confirmed that they tried twice to infiltrate the bombers and would have made a third attempt on Thursday.  One of the would-be bombers, Said Rushdi Tawfik Makhoul, 20, was caught at a checkpoint at Surda, north of Ramallah. The other, Abdel Rahman Husseini Issa, 18, was detained at a checkpoint at Sa-Nur, north of Nablus. 

Elsewhere in the West Bank, security forces arrested five Islamic Jihad fugitives in Idna, west of Hebron, who planned to fire rocket-propelled grenades at soldiers manning checkpoints near the village and at Tarkumiya. The fugitives also planned to abduct the soldiers.
The five were identified as relatives Rami, Zwajiri and Ahmed Batrau, Muhammad Farjallah and Tarek Abu Awoud. According to security officials they also planned to launch a suicide bomb attack in Israel.

Shots were fired at an IDF patrol in west Jenin: No one was injured.  They were shot at construction workers on the fence. 

Netanyahu opposes votes on pullout phases: On Thursday Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would withdraw his support of the disengagemnet plan claiming that in enboldens Palestinian militants.  Prime Minitster Ariel Sharon has an assured majority vote for the plan anyway, so Netanyahus remarks seemed just to challenge Sharons leadership in the Likud Party once the pullout is over.  

The plan for the removal of the first setelments for the teritories has already been approved by the cabinet but sharon has agreed to let the ministers vote again on each step of  the pullout. 

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