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The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Prisoners Affairs said the 132 who were freed had all completed their sentences earlier, but had been kept in jail till Thursday.
The ministry rejected Israeli claims that the release was an Israeli goodwill gesture for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Minister of prisoners' affairs, Issa Qaraqi, said that it was a public relations ploy by Israel, since all the prisoners had already served their sentence but had been kept incarcerated for weeks longer, particularly those serving long terms.
In addition to Yousef, a Hamas founder who was arrested in Ramallah, Israel also released several well known Palestinian prisoners, one of them from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine who had served nine years in prison.
Sixteen of the released prisoners were from the Gaza Strip and the longest serving among them had served 17 years in prison, the ministry statement said.
Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur
I don't think it was a goodwill gesture either. Obviously these politcal prisoners were of no particular 'use' to Israel and could therefore be freed. Some of them (perhaps the more criminal element), will no doubt have 'struck a deal' with Israel to work for them in order to be freed. That's how things 'work', isn't it?