After five long years of waiting and campaigning for their abducted son, the Shalit family exhaled with relief on Tuesday night after Israel and Hamas announced that Cpl. Gilad Shalit would be released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The deal is likely to be be completed within the next few days, and Shalit will be back with his family as early as next week, in time for the Simchat Torah holiday that begins next Wednesday evening. Shalit, now 25, was abducted by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006. He was 19 at the time. His captors have not allowed him a single visit, and neither has the International Red Cross been allowed access to him. On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Damascus Khaled Mashaal both made televised announcements that a deal had been reached. Netanyahu's announcement was followed by an hours-long debate in the cabinet to approve the deal, which passed by an overwhelming majority of 26 to three in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Zvi Shalit, Gilad's grandfather, told reporters Wednesday that while his family was concerned about the captured soldier's health, he hoped they would all be able to celebrate Simchat Torah together. We do not know what condition he is in and how he has been treated in captivity. We are waiting for the moment when we will be able to embrace him. President Shimon Peres met with Gilad's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, Wednesday before a scheduled meeting with the prisoner exchange negotiating team, headed by intelligence official David Meidan, during which Peres is expected to be given a copy of the list of prisoners to be pardoned. "You walked on a tightrope and you struggled to bring Gilad home with restraint, dignity and determination, and you demonstrated leadership and responsibility," Peres told the Shalit family and also praised Netanyahu for making a "bold decision." Peres also commented on resistance to the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, saying "I'm aware of the pain of the families who lost loved ones in terror attacks, and we need to embrace them now with warmth." Those who voted against the deal were vocal about their disapproval. National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, who along with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon opposed the deal, told reporters Wednesday that the prisoner swap was a great triumph of terrorism and harms the deterrence and security of Israel, Army Radio reported. Speaking after the cabinet vote, Landau said that while the government should do everything in its power to complete the deal and bring Shalit home, he added that Israel should re-examine its policy on dealing with abductions. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who voted in favor of the deal, echoed some of Landau's statements. According to Army Radio, he told reporters on Wednesday that while he was in favor of the prisoner swap, in the future it was crucial that Israel find a new way to handle kidnappings. Nevertheless, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Yoram Cohen said the deal was the best possible option. If there was a better alternative, operationally or through negotiations, perhaps we would have chosen it, Cohen said. But I think we got the best deal in terms of security parameters. Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, criticized the three ministers who voted against the deal, telling Army Radio that he could not relate to them and that people are using fear and threats of terrorism to dissuade the public from supporting the prisoner swap. Meanwhile, the Israel Prison Service on Wednesday began preparing for the release of the Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch met with Police Chief Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yochanan Danino and prison service officials to discussr a range of scenarios inside and outside Israeli prisons as the deal materialized. One possible scenario the prison service and police are preparing for is unrest by some security prisoners upon finding out that their names are not on the list of those to be released. Tuesday night's cabinet meeting was one of the most dramatic in Israeli history. In a live broadcast, streamed into Israeli homes and businesses, Netanyahu addressed his government and, his excitement palpable, announced that Gilad Shalit was set to return home after more than five years as a prisoner of Hamas. Citizens gathered in their living rooms to hear Netanyahus long-hoped for words. According to his associates, the prime minister was in tears while drafting his notes before taking the podium. Today, I bring a proposal to the government for a deal that will bring Gilad Shalit home alive and well; bring him home to his parents Aviva and Noam, his brother Yoel, his sister Hadas, his grandfather Zvi, and the entire people of Israel. Two and a half years ago, when the government was formed, I took upon myself, as my first priority, to bring Gilad home to his people, to his family to bring him home safe and sound, Netanyahu said. At the time, Gilad had already been held in captivity for two and a half years, with no visits from the Red Cross, with no visits at all, and we did not know what state he was in. The first step I took, and we approved it here in the government, was to get a video recording of Gilad, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it. We saw that he was functioning, physically, mentally and cognitively. We saw that he was functioning well. We knew that he was healthy and that he was alive. I regarded that tape as an insurance policy, because it obliged Hamas before the international community to safeguard him, to keep him alive and maintain his health. But that was obviously only the first step, he said. Detailing the steps his government took to secure Shalits release, Netanyahu said, The most important mission that we had was more challenging, to actually bring Gilad home. To that end we held long and tough negotiations via the German mediator. These negotiations were based on a framework outlined by the previous government. They were long and exhausting, and despite all our efforts, a deal was not reached. He continued, I must point out that not a day went by without us trying various ways to bring Gilad home, any way possible, and that didn't work either. In the last few weeks, the negotiations were renewed in Cairo, this time with the Egyptian government as mediator. My instructions to the team were to adhere to the principles and framework that are important for the security of the state of Israel. It was not easy to sanction the release of Palestinian prisoners, several of whom had killed Israelis in terror attacks, Netanyahu said. The deal I am bringing to the government expresses the right balance between all of these considerations. I do not wish to hide the truth from you it is a very difficult decision. I feel for the families of victims of terror, I appreciate their suffering and distress, I am one of them. But leadership must be examined at moments such as this, being able to make difficult, but right, decisions, he said. I believe that we have reached the best deal we could have at this time, when storms are sweeping the Middle East. I do not know if in the near future we would have been able to reach a better deal or any deal at all. It is very possible that this window of opportunity, that opened because of the circumstances, would close indefinitely and we would never have been able to bring Gilad home at all. Therefore, for all of these reasons, I instructed the team to put their initials on the deal last Thursday, and today it was finalized and signed by both sides. Above all, Netanyahu said, what mattered was saving the life of Gilad Shalit. This morning I Invited Noam Shalit to my residence, and I spoke on the phone with the mother Aviva and the grandfather Zvi. I told them that I am keeping my promise and I'm bringing their son and grandson home. I told them, 'I'm bringing your boy back.' I am happy that I succeeded in fulfilling the Jewish decree of redeeming captives, and if all goes as planned, Gilad will be back in Israel in the next few days with his family and his people. The nation of Israel is a unique people. We are all mutually responsible for each other, as our sages said: 'He who saves one soul, it is as though he saved an entire world.' Tonight, I bring the government a proposal to save Gilad Shalit, to finally bring him home to Israel after five years. As part of the prisoner exchange deal, 1,000 male prisoners and 27 female prisoners will be released. The first 450 prisoners will be released over the next week to coincide with the release of Shalit. The remaining prisoners will be released within the next two months. One hundred and ten prisoners will be released to their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 131 will be released to Gaza. Another 203 prisoners will be banned from the West Bank and will be deported upon their release to locations overseas. Forty of them will be sent to Gaza. At least 280 of the prisoners are serving life sentences in Israeli prisons. Mashaal hailed the prisoner swap deal as a great achievement, a qualitative success, Al-Arabiya reported late Tuesday. Because of this accord, there will no longer be any women in the jails of the enemy, he was quoted as saying. In an apparent victory for the Israeli negotiating team, however, some of the most notorious Hamas prisoners Marwan Barghouti, Abdullah Barghouti, Ahmed Saadat, Hassan Salama and Abbas al-Sayed who were initially proposed for release will remain in jail.
Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox!
