Israel, Hamas Agree on Prisoner Swap Deal
Israeli and Hamas officials announced late Tuesday that they have reached a prisoner swap deal to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip in exhange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, capping five years of painful negotiations that have repeatedly collapsed in fingerpointing and violence.
The deal would bring home Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006 by Palestinian militants who burrowed into Israel and dragged him into Gaza. Little has been known about his fate since then.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened an urgent meeting Tuesday night with his Cabinet to approve the deal, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition pending a formal announcement. A senior Hamas official in Cairo also confirmed the deal.
The agreement would exchange Schalit, 25, for around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel had previously balked at Hamas' demands because some of the prisoners are serving lengthy sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis. Exact details of the deal were not immediately available.
A Hamas delegation led by a top Hamas official, Mahmoud Zahar, had arrived in Cairo Monday night from the group's headquarters in Syria. The deal would be implemented in a week, the senior Hamas official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Schalit's plight has captured the attention of Israel, where military service is mandatory for Jewish citizens and families identify with the Schalit family's pain. The soldier's father, Noam, has become a well-known public figure by leading a campaign to win his son's freedom, leading demonstrations and sleeping in a tent outside Netanyahu's residence.
Likewise, the plight of Palestinian prisoners is deeply emotional among Palestinians. Virtually every Palestinian has a relative who has served time in an Israeli prison.
Both German and Egyptian mediators have repeatedly tried to broker deals between Israel and Hamas. Those talks have repeatedly broke down, and Israel has carried out a number of military strikes and imposed a blockade over the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas.
over 12 years
@dannyb
i think you better read your history before speaking of humanity!!
the fact that your ancestors were rotting in concentration camps doesn't give your people the right to make all of humanity suffer your mere existence.
by the way, i think the concentration camps were not enough...
heil hitler
over 12 years
If you ask me you may hang all Hamas
over 12 years
@dannyb
i think you better read your history before speaking of humanity!!
the fact that your ancestors were rotting in concentration camps doesn't give your people the right to make all of humanity suffer your mere existence.
by the way, i think the concentration camps were not enough...
heil hitler
over 12 years
@Danny B
1- You don't know for sure how shalit was treated. You're just assuming.
2- Of course they did not allow visits, not for human reasons, but for security reasons.
3- I'm not sure, but I don't think that your government is releasing bombers and terrorists...rock throwers at the most...but I might be wrong.
4- I don't think that Israelis know much about human dignity. Palestinians have always been treated with disgrace, and shot at like poultry. You cannot deny years of haunting pictures and documentaries that we all have seen.
Now, I am not defending the Palestinians here because...well, because this is not my fight. I just think that you have a high and very biased esteem of the decency of your army...of your governors in general.
over 12 years
@ shab - take a hike.
over 12 years
trigger: You just prove what I always say, that our haters contrary to what they try to prove as if they make difference between Israelis (sorry Zionists) to Jews. they always try to claim that they have nothing against Jews only Israelis and here you are showing your hate , same as your Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini who was happy to declare Jihad on Jews and run with his troops to assist the SS.
To crap like you I always say: Israel is stack like a bone in your throat and will remain there despite of all your hate.
You are also invited to replace my grandfathers and grandmothers along with their families who went to heaven through the Auschwitz chimneys.
Long live Israel - and eat your heart.
This is one of these days, i'm proud to be Israeli.
No matter what we have passed from our neighbors around us we didn't loose our human dignity. for a single soldier who was treated by beasts and did no see the sun shining and was not allowed for a single visit of Red Cross we release 1000 terrorists baby and women killers whom set bombs in disco's , resturants buses and hotels.
Despite their crime of killing innocents they were in prison with full rights visits and deserved fare treatment. this is the difference.
Even in a million years you will not reach our humanity.