Hamas Releases Soldier, Israel Frees 1,027 Prisoners

Gilad Shalit is coming home to Israel after five years of being held captive in Gaza.

The prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas is reportedly underway, with Hamas freeing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after holding him hostage for five years in exchange for 447 Palestinian prisoners today. Another 550 will be freed within two months. (The BBC breaks the exchange down into much greater detail here if interested.)

Shalit, 25, had been held in Gaza for five years since being kidnapped by Islamist Hamas militants. Israel responded to his capture in the summer of 2006 with a full-scale military operation into Gaza. Ever since, his safe return to Israel has been a sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (or lack thereof), but the deal arranged last week by the Netanyahu goverment, Hamas, and Egyptian mediators will finally bring Shalit's plight to an end. Shalit will leave Gaza for Cairo before heading via helicopter to a military base in Israel, where he will be greeted by Netanyahu. He will then head to his family's home in Nahariya. Critics in Israel have lambasted the government for freeing so many prisoners, some of whom have been convicted of orchestrating and carrying out terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Indeed, the families of four of the prisoners' victims staged a last-ditch attempt to have Israel's High Court kill the transfer, but the bench denied their petitions.