Gilad Shalit prisoner swap names released
The mother of Palestinian prisoner Adnan Maragha on Oct. 16, 2011, smiles as she holds a picture of her son, who is among the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Maragha has served 22 years of a life sentence.
The names of the first 477 Palestinian prisoners who will be swapped for Israeli solider Gilad Shalit were released on Sunday, 48 hours before the exchange was due to take place, the Telegraph reports.
This gives Israelis time to challenge the prisoner exchange, although the Israeli High Court has never overturned any government decision to free prisoners involved in attacks on Israel, the Telegraph says. Two new petitions against the swap deal for Gilad Shalit, 25, who’s been held in Gaza for more than five years, would be heard on Monday, the Telegraph reports.
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The list of 450 Palestinian men and 27 women who will be freed include a woman who directed a suicide bomber to a crowded Jerusalem pizzeria where he killed 16 people in 2001; Nasser Yateima, who organized a hotel bombing that killed 30 people celebrating Passover in 2002; and Fadi Ibrahim, who planned a bus bombing in 2003 in Haifa that killed 17 people, The Associated Press reports.
However, some of Israel’s most important prisoners remain in jail, including Ahmed Saadat, who plotted the murder of Israeli government minister Rehavam Zeevi, Marwan Barghouti and Abdullah Barghouti, the New York Times reports.
According to the New York Times:
Although the outlines of the current deal between Israel and Hamas have been on the table for two years, it was Hamas’s willingness to abandon a handful of top prisoners and accept exile for others that allowed the exchange to go forward. At the same time, Israel yielded on the number permitted back to their homes in the West Bank rather than insisting on exile.
Under the terms of the agreement announced last week, more than half of the Palestinian prisoners will be permitted to return to the West Bank, the New York Times reports. Of the 200 who will be exiled in Gaza or abroad, 18 will be allowed to return after three years, the Telegraph reports.
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