BEITUNIA CHECKPOINT, West Bank - Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners today as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership.

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the frontrunner in Jan. 9 presidential elections, welcomed the release, but said Israel must free those sentenced to lengthy terms. Some 7,000 Palestinians are held by Israel on security-related charges, and Abbas is under intense pressure at home to win their freedom.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian fugitive.

Dozens of prisoners arrived this morning at dropoff points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, some waving Palestinian flags and flashing victory signs.

The prisoner release was part of a swap with Egypt. On Dec. 5, Egypt released Azzam Azzam, an Israeli who served eight years in an Egyptian jail on charges he was a spy. In exchange, Israel released six Egyptian students accused of planning attacks on Israel, and agreed to release Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has said the prisoner release was also meant as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership, but refuses to free Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis.

In Gaza, Ahmad Shaqoura, 24, said he had only 23 days left on a two-year term. "It means nothing," said Shaqoura, a Fatah member.

Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the prisoner release was a sign of Israel's warming relations with Egypt, and the countries' desire to coordinate a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The pullout from Gaza and four West Bank settlements, set for next year, received a boost Sunday when residents of one small Gaza community reached an agreement with the government to leave their homes voluntarily in March. Troops will begin evacuating settlements in July.

Peat Sadeh was the first settlement to reach such an agreement with the government, but Yonatan Bassi, who handles the compensation arrangements for the government, said he was negotiating with other settler families and communities.