Israel releases prisoners to Gaza after delay

GAZA STRIP: Israel sent 29 Palestinian prisoners home to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday in an attempt to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a U.S. sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood.   

The prisoners entered the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing with Israel, a day after they had been scheduled to be released. Dozens of family members and supporters, some waving yellow flags of Abbas's secular Fatah movement, had waited for hours to greet the prisoners on the Gaza side.