Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for five years, was released and arrived in Israel. Egyptian television broadcast the first pictures of the Israeli soldier. Gilad Shalit was surrounded by security personnel and apparently walking without difficulty. Among those who accompanied him was Ahmed Jaabari, the head of Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
The soldier would had to be transferred by helicopter to the Tel Nof air base in southern Israel, where his parents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff, General Benny Gantz were waiting for him. Israeli authorities have promised a “discreet reception to meet the needs of the soldier and his family.”
Hamas armed wing said it made a video with “preparations for the transfer of Shalit from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”, which will be broadcast on Egyptian and Palestinian television.
Parents of the soldier, Noam and Aviva, have left the town they live in, Mitzpe Hila, in northern Israel, to go to Tel Nof. especting the needs of the soldier and his family”. The tankman, captured by a Palestinian commando on June 25 2006 on the Gaza Strip border, was released in exchange for a first group of 477 Palestinians – most of them sentenced to life imprisonment – including 27 women.
At the Kerem Shalom terminal, on the border with the Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, Israeli army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch said that Palestinian prisoners are “on the way” to Gaza. Three leaders of Hamas, Ezzat al-Rishq, Moussa Abu Marzuk and Sheikh Saleh al-Aruri went to Rafah, Egyptian border, to meet the released prisoners.
Three convoys carrying 133 Palestinian prisoners originally from West Bank left two Israeli prisons with the destination Ofer detention center in the West Bank, where they will be transported by bus to the Beitunia dam, near Ramallah, to be released. Another convoy carrying 147 prisoners arrived at the border terminal Kerem Shalum. It carries some of the Palestinians to be released in Egypt to get to Gaza Strip.
Prisoners are either born in Gaza or expelled from this territory. About 40 of them will be exiled to Turkey, Qatar and Syria, through Egypt. The released prisoners, picked up in several convoys were handcuffed. They changed their prison uniforms for civilian clothes. More than 1,000 policemen were deployed along the route of the convoys, public radio announced.
Six right-wing activists who tried to block the convoy on the road stretching to denounce the release of the “terrorists” were arrested, the radio station added. Representatives of Egyptian consulate in Israel were present at the departure of the convoys to ensure the identity of prisoners who were to be released in an unprecedented agreement between Israel and Egypt brokered by Hamas Islamists.
On the Egyptian border with Gaza Strip, Egyptian security forces members were Tuesday morning at the Rafah border post, where families waited for Palestinian prisoners, announced the national television.
In Gaza, Hamas has prepared a triumphal reception for the “heroes” out of prison and decreed a day off for everybody. All evening, mosque loudspeakers called on people to celebrate the official ” victory” in Katiba Market in Gaza where a platform was installed and thousands of seats to receive the prisoners. On the streets of Gaza, in the evening, groups of children were writing slogans on walls to celebrate the return of the prisoners.
According to the agreement signed a week ago, under Egyptian mediation, between Israel and Hamas, a second group of 550 Palestinian prisoners will be released within two months.