(Adds British foreign secretary) By Adam Entous JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Monday to free 250 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip. The prisoners, a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinians held, will be released in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas's government holds sway, before next month's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, officials said after Olmert and Abbas met. Israeli spokesman David Baker called the release a "goodwill gesture" to Abbas, who launched peace talks with Olmert a year ago after Gaza's violent takeover by Hamas. Baker said Israel would release prisoners from the ranks of Abbas's secular Fatah faction and other non-Islamist groups. The U.S.-sponsored talks, rejected by Hamas, have shown little outward sign of progress. Negotiators cite disputes over violence in the Gaza Strip, the fate of Jerusalem and the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land. Nearly 200 prisoners were freed by Israel in August. Such releases are highly emotive for Palestinians, who regard prisoners as symbols of resistance to Israeli occupation. Israel did not say if it would consider freeing high-profile Fatah inmates such as uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas as Palestinian president. GAZA BALANCING ACT Abbas faces a balancing act in the Gaza Strip. He must condemn an Israeli-led blockade for making life harder for 1.5 million Palestinians, but he may benefit if it weakens Hamas. In their talks in Jerusalem, Abbas urged Israel to abide by a 5-month-old, Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas that has come close to collapse during two weeks of cross-border violence. At a press conference later with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Abbas repeated his call on Palestinian factions to stop firing "useless" rockets into southern Israel. Before flying on to Damascus, Miliband told Abbas he saw 2009 as a chance to advance the various peace processes across the Middle East, including nascent talks with Syria. Abbas has termed Israel's tightened blockade of the Gaza Strip a "war crime". Olmert told him there was "no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip", and Israel would not let one develop. Before they met, Israel opened one of Gaza's main border crossings for the first time in two weeks, allowing in 30 truckloads of humanitarian supplies. Journalists and some diplomats were still barred entry. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ran out of food supplies last week for 750,000 Palestinians, sent in meat and powdered milk on Monday. "It will last a matter of days. But then what?" spokesman Christopher Gunness said. Israel had not allowed UNRWA and other agencies to bring in supplies since Nov. 4, when its troops raided the impoverished coastal enclave to destroy what the army described as a tunnel built by militants trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Over the two weeks of cross-border fighting that followed, more than a dozen Palestinian fighters were killed. Gaza militants responded with rocket salvoes -- including a dozen on Monday. These attacks caused few injuries and little damage, but Olmert said they were intolerable. As well as blocking food trucks, Israel has held up fuel deliveries to Gaza's sole power plant, causing blackouts. Israel and Hamas have both signalled they want to restore the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which began on June 19. Olmert is Israel's caretaker prime minister pending an election in February. Abbas's political future is clouded by Hamas's insistence that his term ends in January. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans)
An Israeli soldier sits on the barrel of a tank at a temporary military base near Kibbutz Kissufim, just outside the Gaza Strip, November 16, 2008. An Israeli air strike killed ...
