Gilad Shalit Has Been Transferred From Hamas Custody
Gilad Shalit
The Islamist movement Hamas released on Tuesday 25-year-old IDF soldier Gilad Shalit as part of a deal in which Israel would release 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners in exchange for Shalit’s life. Hamas transferred Shalit into Egyptian custody, and he will be handed to the Israeli forces as soon as Israel begins releasing the Palestinian prisoners, held in various locations.
477 inmates will be freed by Israel on Tuesday, according to the terms of the deal, while 550 will be released afterwards in a two-month period of time. 40 prisoners, those whose release does not include their homecoming, will be taken to Turkey, Syria, and Qatar, the countries that agreed to take them in.
About 100 will go to the West Bank, and the rest will go to Gaza, where they are to be received like heroes. Those who will arrive in the West Bank will be met by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, a political rival of Hamas.
Gilad Shalit will be taken from the Sinai desert, where the swap will take place, to a Israeli base, where he will be greeted by the prime minister of Israel and other officials. From there he will be reunited with his family, which lives in the north of Israel.
On Monday, the Supreme Court in Israel rejected four petitions filed by families of those who lost dear ones in the attack of the Palestinians that will be released on Tuesday. The court upheld the decision of the government in a move that was expected to happen by the analysts.
The swap was not without little inconveniences as a Palestinian woman, who had been in prison for luring an Israeli teen to Ramallah, where he was shot dead by the Fatah, refused to be deported to Gaza for fear that the families of other Palestinian inmates she maltreated in prison will exact retribution on her.
Another Palestinian woman joined her stalling the transfer process, also fearing that the Gazans will take revenge on her.
Hamas is expecting to have some 500,000 people celebrating the victory in the streets, for which reason parts of the traffic have been closed in the territory and a scene was set up to receive the prisoners who will be returned by Israel.
While Israel views these people as terrorists, Palestinians view them as heroes fighting for the independence of their country.
The victory is not complete today for Hamas, as critics consider that most of the people who are about to reunite with their families are affiliated with Hamas and few with Fatah, which overshadows the achievement, as the absence of senior prisoners, such as Marwan Barghouti, is cause for criticism of the deal Hamas has cut with Israel.
Even at a moment of joy like this, Hamas feels like reminding the people of Gaza, and maybe all the Palestinians, that the Palestinian Authority would never have been capable of such an outcome.
The remark comes after the Palestinian Authority accused Hamas of a poor deal, stating that the Palestinian Authority had proposed Israel a deal to release Shalit in exchange for the lifting of the Gaza blockade.
The accusation was made on Sunday by a PA official and was rejected by the Hamas leaders. Hamas top leader Mahmoud Zahar told the press that throughout the negotiations the Palestinian president offered to release Shalit in exchange for the lifting of the blockade but with no prisoner released.
Palestinian Authority welcomed the release of the prisoners but complained that important names are not on the list. A Palestinian source said that Marwan Barghouti is not on the release list because of the frictions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Regardless of how the Palestinians are interpreting the deal, Israel will receive Gilad Shalit in an ambiance of national celebration. Shalit’s family expressed gratitude to the state of Israel for giving their son back to them.
