JERUSALEM — In an elaborate prisoner exchange that could roil Middle East politics, an Israeli soldier held for more than five years by the militant Palestinian group Hamas was swapped on Tuesday for hundreds of Palestinians who have spent many years in Israeli jails, all them freed to jubilant welcomes tinged with bitterness and grief.
Buses transporting the Palestinian prisoners — the first group of what will eventually number more than 1,000 — made their way into Egypt, which helped broker the exchange, and from there to the West Bank and Gaza Strip where relatives and celebrations awaited.
The soldier, Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, 25, was taken from Gaza, where he had been held since Palestinian militants abducted him in a cross-border raid in 2006, into Egypt and from there to Israel, where he was given a medical check and declared in good health. Looking pale and thin, he changed into a military uniform and was flown by helicopter to an Israeli military air base where he was reunited with his family and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Today we are all united in joy and in pain,” Mr. Netanyahu said shortly after in a televised address from the base, Tel Nof, south of Tel Aviv.
The question of whether the exchange would lead to more abductions of Israeli soldiers hung in the air on Tuesday for both Israelis and Palestinians.
The armed wing of Hamas made clear that for it the conflict with Israel was hardly over. “We will not give up until prisons are shut down,” a masked spokesman for the group, who identified himself as Abu Obaida, said in a televised statement in Gaza. “A chapter has ended but there are other chapters.”
Abu Obaida also said that Hamas treated Sergeant Shalit “according to the Islamic morals,” while Israel “deliberately dealt with our prisoners with torture, compulsion and revenge.”
One of the freed prisoners, Yehya Sinwar, a co-founder of an early security wing of Hamas, was defiant. He promised “to work hard to free all prisoners, especially those who serve high sentences, whatever the price was.”
Another was Wafa al-Bass, who has been in prison since 2005 when she used the chance for treatment at an Israeli hospital as a pretext to bring a suicide belt through the Erez crossing — trying to explode it when caught. Upon arrival in Gaza, she said that Palestinians should “take another Shalit” every year until all the remaining 5,000 Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails went free.
Israel displayed a calibrated mix of relieved celebration and acknowledgment — both of the pain and death that the released Palestinians caused many families and of the risk that their release may pose to Israelis.
Several petitions to block or alter the exchange had been rejected by Israel’s high court on Monday. The scene at the courtroom was emotionally charged, with some families who lost members in terrorist attacks assailing the Shalit family and the government.
Mr. Netanyahu wrote letters to the bereaved families saying he understood their heartache.
“I know that the price is very heavy for you,” he wrote. “I understand the difficulty to countenance that the evil people who perpetrated the appalling crimes against your loved ones will not pay the full price that they deserve. During these moments I hope that you will find solace that I and the entire nation of Israel embrace you and share your pain.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu, in his remarks at Tel Nof base, said Israel would continue to fight terrorism and warned that any released prisoner who returned to violence was “taking his life into his hands.”
The deal is likely to strengthen Hamas within Palestinian politics, adding to the difficulties for President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and efforts to revive the peace process with Israel. Egypt, a key broker of the deal, will likely gain, as will Turkey, a supporter of Hamas. Hamas may even move its headquarters to Egypt from the Syrian capital, Damascus, where President Bashar al-Assad is facing strong popular revolt. And if the prisoner exchange emboldens Hamas to carry out more actions against Israel, that would likely empower the hawkish right in Israel.
Sergeant Shalit, the first captive Israeli soldier returned home alive in 26 years, was unexpectedly interviewed on Egyptian television before being handed over to Israel. Sitting in a blue checked shirt and speaking Hebrew, he smiled and reflected on the questions before answering them.
Asked if he had feared that he would never get out, Sergeant Shalit answered that he worried it would take many more years although in the past month he had suspected a deal was in the works. He said he was told of his release a week ago.
Asked what he missed most in prison, he replied, “My family and my friends and seeing and talking with people. The worst was having to do the same thing every day over and over.”
He was told that Israel still had thousands of prisoners and was asked if he would like them released. “I will be happy for them to be released if they don’t return to fight us,” he said. “I very much hope that this deal will advance peace.”
Rafah, the most isolated part of Gaza, was where the Shalit saga began and ended. In June 2006, Hamas and two other militant factions raided an Israeli military post at Kerem Shalom via a long tunnel beneath the Rafah sands under the border, capturing the young soldier, then a corporal. He was never seen in public during his captivity. On Tuesday, Egyptian television showed Sergeant Shalit being rushed through the Rafah crossing terminal from Gaza into Egypt accompanied by Hamas and Egyptian officials.
Soon afterward, an Israeli military statement said: “Gilad Shalit crossed the border into Israel, ending over five years in captivity.”
Sergeant Shalit — who was promoted twice while in captivity — was brought to the Tel Nof base after his medical check, which took longer than expected, raising concern about his health. At the base where he reunited with his family and met Mr. Netanyahu, he also met Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the military chief of staff.
After a more extensive medical examination and some time with the officials and his family, Sergeant Shalit and his family were transported by helicopter to their home in northern Israel. Reporters and onlookers were barred from his neighborhood to give the family a measure of privacy. Chiefs of major Israeli news organizations vowed to respect the restrictions.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera television that the first step of the agreement was complete. Speaking from the Rafah crossing point, Mr. Barhoum warned Israel against “maneuvering or playing with any article of the agreement.” He added that Egyptian mediators had assured Hamas that they would not allow Israel to violate the agreement.
Both Israel and the divided Palestinian leadership — Fatah runs the West Bank while Hamas controls the Gaza Strip — had made elaborate preparations for the handover of the prisoners, many of them held far longer than Sergeant Shalit.
Throngs of excited Palestinians woke to mosque loudspeakers crying “God is great!” and “Victory to God!” as they awaited the arrival of buses carrying the 477 prisoners. Another 550 are expected to be released in two months. Two female prisoners due to be sent to Gaza were demanding instead to be sent to Egypt. Turkey was expecting to receive about 10 prisoners, according to its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. The Anatolian news agency reported that around 40 Palestinians would be relocated to Turkey, Syria and Egypt and Turkey.
Shortly after dawn, the Hamas-run government took busloads of journalists in a tightly controlled media operation to the Rafah crossing Armed members of Hamas’s militant wing, the Qassam Brigades, lined the main highway to the crossing, wearing black and green bandanas and balaclavas. Some carried Kalashnikov assault rifles while others bore rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the guards — at some points posted every 15 feet — had apparently been deployed to forestall disruptions. A celebratory rally was planned at Brigades Park in one of Gaza’s largest open spaces. There a stage had been erected for the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, to address the crowd and welcome the returnees.
The buses carrying the prisoners drove through a huge crowd of Hamas police and a drum band and honor guard. The men disembarked one by one and ran a gantlet of people who cheered them, held up camera phones, saluted and patted them on the back. Some were given sashes with the Palestinian colors.
All along Salahuddin Street, the main north-south road that runs the length of the Gaza Strip, Hamas activists had attached Islamist banners to streetlights on Monday.
Dozens of the released prisoners attended a reception given by President Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank. Although the exchange was negotiated by his rivals in Hamas, the release of prisoners was a source of national celebration. School was canceled so that children could participate.
“We thank God that you returned safe and sound to your families, your brothers, and your homeland after this forced disappearance because you struggled for your homeland,” Mr. Abbas told the freed prisoners and well wishers. “We pray that God enables us to see the rest of our sisters and brothers freed in this yard. Your sacrifices, and efforts and work were not in vain. You worked and struggled and sacrificed. You will see the results of your sacrifices in the independent Palestinian state.”
At Rafah, a woman arrived with a photograph of her son, who was killed in the raid that captured Gilad Shalit. He was Mohammad Azmi Firwana, 23, from Khan Younis.
“I have come to greet the prisoners because they are all like my sons and daughters,” said the woman, Ahlam Firwana. “We have not got Mohammad’s body back yet. We have heard nothing.”
Source: nytimes.com
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