ISRAEL yesterday approved the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners in what it described as an effort to boost the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. In a separate development, a senior Israeli official disclosed that the Israeli army might occupy parts of the Gaza Strip’s second largest city, Khan Yunis, in order to secure the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the nearby Katif bloc in mid-August. “A few days before the real evacuation, a political- military decision will be made on this,” the National Security Council director, Major- General Giora Eiland, said. Full Story