Jerusalem, October 02: Israel began releasing 19 Palestinian women from its jails on Friday in the first part of a deal with Hamas, in return for a video showing proof that a captured Israeli soldier being held by the group is alive.
Officials said the 19 women, to be joined by a 20th on Sunday, will first be brought in International Red Cross vehicles to border crossings with the Gaza Strip and West Bank, but will not be freed until Israel gives the green light after viewing the videotape.
According to reports, two black prison vans emerged from Hadarim jail north of Tel Aviv as the handover process began.
The swap is the most positive move in three years of efforts to free soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in June 2006 in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants
Brokered by German and Egyptian mediators, it could be a step toward a broader deal for his liberation, in return for the release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has not visited Shalit and only a few letters and an audio cassette from him have reached his family, which has waged a vocal campaign to get him freed
Officials have said that the German mediator has already viewed the recording and believes it showed Shalit in recent weeks. Shalit’s family was expected to view the videotape before its release to the public.
Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, said on Wednesday that the video of the soldier lasts about a minute, and “shows Shalit alive and moving”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday it was “important for the entire world to know that Gilad Shalit is alive and well and that Hamas is responsible for his well-being and his fate.”
Shalit, now 23, is also a French citizen. He was spirited into Gaza by Islamist militants who tunnelled into Israel in a raid in which two soldiers and two of the attackers were killed.
Israel holds more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is negotiating for the release of hundreds of its members in exchange for Shalit, including militants behind deadly attacks who Israel has said in the past it would not free.
Israel has said none of the Palestinian women being freed on Friday were directly involved in killings or serving a sentence exceeding two years.
–Agencies