Palestinian prisoners queue up on Monday before their release from Ofer Prison near the West Bank town of Ramallah. (Ariel Schalit/Associated Press)Israel released another group of almost 200 Palestinian prisoners on Monday in what it called a goodwill gesture to bolster West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas.

It is the latest in a series of releases since the two sides resumed peace negotiations late last year. More than 9,000 Palestinians are believed to be held in Israeli jails.

The longest serving of the 199 prisoners to be released have been in jail since the late 1970s and are classified by Israel as inmates with "blood on their hands," or involvement in attacks that resulted in Israeli casualties.

Among those due to be released is Said al-Atabeh, 57, who was arrested in 1977 and convicted of a deadly market bombing that killed an Israeli woman and wounded dozens of others. Four women were also to be released, according to Israeli prison officials.

Celebration in Ramallah

Some of the prisoners waved black-and-white checkered keffiyeh headdresses as they got out of Israeli buses that took them to the West Bank from Israel's Ofer Prison.

Others were seen kissing the ground before boarding vehicles to transport them to the Palestinian Authority compound in Ramallah, where thousands of cheering supporters joined Abbas in giving them a hero's welcome.

"There is no doubt that we seek peace and we are trying to seek our goals — and there won't be peace without the release of all prisoners," Abbas told the crowd.

There was an atmosphere of celebration as Palestinians awaited the arrival of their relatives, the CBC's Margaret Evans reported from Ramallah.

"Mothers here have told me this is the happiest day of their lives," Evans said.

But others, including a taxi driver who said his brother has been in an Israeli jail for eight years, said the number of prisoners released wasn't enough to build faith that a peace between the two sides is possible.

Prisoner release will 'create goodwill': Israeli spokesman

Israel has refused in the past to free prisoners directly linked to fatal attacks, although the government made an exception in July when it released accused Lebanese prisoner Samir Kantar, who was convicted of killing an Israeli father, daughter and policeman.

Kantar was one of five prisoners freed in a deal negotiated between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. In exchange for the prisoners, Hezbollah released the dead bodies of two Israeli soldiers who were captured by Hezbollah fighters during a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said it was not easy for Israel to release the prisoners.

"Some of the individuals being released today are guilty of direct involvement in the murder of innocent civilians," Regev said.

"But we understand the importance of the prisoner issue for Palestinian society.… We believe this action can support the negotiation process and create goodwill."

Rice visit aimed at boosting peace talks

The latest releases come just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region in a visit aimed at boosting fledgling peace talks between the two sides.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which began late last year after a seven-year hiatus, have made little progress in recent months.

Speaking to reporters aboard her plane on Monday, Rice acknowledged it will be difficult to reach the stated target for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of the year.

But she said the United States, Israel and the Palestinians remain committed to that goal.

"We continue to have the same goal, which is to reach agreement by the end of the year," Rice said. "[There is] a lot of work ahead to do that and obviously it's a complicated time, but it's always complicated out here."

Palestinian officials have decried the continued construction of illegal settlements by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Israeli plans to build more housing units in neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.

Israel has condemned rocket and mortar attacks fired into its territory by Palestinian militants in Gaza, although such attacks have been reduced drastically since Israel and militant Islamist group Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in June.

With files from the Associated Press