Palestinian groups are planning celebrations to mark Israel’s imminent release of hundreds of prisoner “heroes” in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Israeli President Shimon Peres received the files of Palestinians prisoners to be pardoned as part of the deal for Sergeant Shalit’s release, his office said. Today, 477 Palestinian prisoners, including 27 women, are expected to be freed in the first stage of a deal for the return of Sgt Shalit, who has been held for more than five years by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers plan to release Sgt Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid in 2006, with the understanding that another 550 Palestinian prisoners will walk free within two months.
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees told a news conference in Gaza that “all organisations have agreed to begin preparations for the reception of the prisoners, to receive them like heroes with official and popular celebrations.”
The armed Palestinian group says it is holding the Israeli soldier.
“The organisations expressed their pride in this agreement that Hamas reached with Israel, with the mediation of Egypt, and applauded the heroes who kidnapped Gilad Shalit,” the spokesman added, reading a statement.
“They said they would continue to make every effort to free every prisoner held in Israel jails.”
But President Peres will not sign the pardons for another two days to allow the Israeli public time to lodge any legal appeals against individual Palestinian prisoners included in the deal, government offiocial said. The court has not in the past blocked a government decision on prisoner exchanges.
Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official, for his part said that the “dossier of prisoners remains the priority”.
Mr Radwan said an official welcoming ceremony would be held at Rafah, the crossing point between the south of Gaza and Egypt “with the participation of Hamas and all organisations”.
“The festivities will then continue in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
The Israeli sergeant’s father, Noam Shalit, warned against premature celebrations in the Jewish state, stressing that “it’s not done until it’s done”.
Mr Shalit’s relatives will await the 25-year-old soldier, who also has French nationality, at the family home in Mitzpe Hila, in northern Israel.
The defence minister said Sgt Shalit would be automatically recognised as a victim of post-traumatic stress, rather than an invalided former combatant as had previously been suggested.
A private television network poll showed that more than two thirds of Israelis approve of the prisoner swap deal made with Hamas.
A poll commissioned by Channel 10 found that 69 per cent of Israelis back the exchange of Shalit for some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, 32 per cent oppose it and the remainder gave no opinion.
While supporting the deal, 62 per cent of respondents said the release of Palestinian prisoners would “worsen Israel’s security situation”. But 32 per cent said it would have “no impact”.
On the wider issue of forging a durable solution in the region, the US said on Friday that progress is being made toward reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks before the end of the month.
Factbox on prisoners who will be freed
Some of the most prominent of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to be released in a swap between Israel and Hamas:
• Nasser Yateima, 34, serving 29 life terms for his role in a 2002 suicide bombing at an Israeli hotel that killed 30 people. To be exiled.
• Walid Abdel-Hadi, 31, serving 36 life terms for his role in several attacks, including a 2002 suicide bombing in a Jerusalem cafe that killed 11 people. To be exiled.
• Amna Muna, 35, serving life term since 2001 for luring an Israeli teenage boy over the internet to the West Bank, where he was killed by waiting militants.
• Ahlam Tamimi, 31, serving 16 life sentences for her role in a suicide bombing, including taking the assailant to the Sbarro franchise in Jerusalem where he killed 16 people in 2001. To be deported to Jordan.
• Nizar Tamimi, 38, serving a life term for his role in the 1993 kidnapping and killing of an Israeli settler.
• Mohammed Abu Khoussa, 72, in prison since 1976, formerly affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO faction. Serving life term for heading an armed cell that killed several Israeli soldiers in the 1970s.
• Abdel Hadi Ghneim, 46, arrested in 1989 after he grabbed the steering wheel of an Israeli bus and sent it plunging into a ravine near Jerusalem. Serving 16 life sentences for the attack that killed 16 people.
• Fathi Barghouti, 57, and Nael Barghouti, 54, cousins, arrested in 1978 for membership in an armed cell that kidnapped and killed an Israeli man. Each serving a life term.
• Yehiye al-Sinwar, 49, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a forerunner of Hamas, since the 1980s, and a founder of the Hamas military wing. In prison since 1988, serving four life terms, including his role as mastermind of the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers.
• Mohammed Youssef al-Sharatha, 54, a leader of a Hamas commando unit. Arrested in 1989, serving three life terms for his role in the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers.
• Jihad Yaghmur, 44, arrested in 1994 for his role in the capture of an Israeli soldier, Nahshon Waxman, who was killed during an Israeli rescue attempt. Serving life term. To be exiled.