Israel released 255 Palestinian prisoners on Friday as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff against Hamas.

More than 250 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons have received a rapturous welcome from relatives and friends in Ramallah, on the West Bank.

Iraq’s main Sunni Arab bloc has ended its boycott of the Shi’ite-dominated parliament, officials said on Thursday, in a positive sign for the country’s faltering attempts at national reconciliation.