Israeli-Palestinian prisoners swap leaves many questions unanswered

Israelis yesterday grappled with the high cost of freeing Hamas-held soldier Gilad Shalit, after those responsible for bombings of buses, cafes and nightclubs appeared on a government list of the 477 Palestinians to be released tomorrow in a landmark swap.

While most Israelis are backing the deal as the only way to gain freedom for army sergeant Shalit, 25, after five years in captivity, publication of the list brought to the fore the anguish the swap is causing to some bereaved families – and fears that some of the released Palestinians will return to anti-Israel attacks.

“This is a really twisted agreement,” said Michael Norzich, whose brother Nadim, a reserve soldier, was killed after he accidentally drove into Ramallah in the occupied West Bank in 2000 at the start of the second Palestinian uprising. “You can’t give them everything.”

Abdul Aziz Salha, who was photographed holding up his blood-stained hands after the killing and was sentenced by an Israeli military court to life imprisonment, is to be released.

This, despite what Mr Norzich says were promises to him from then prime minister and now defence minister Ehud Barak that “the terrorist will never see daylight”.

The deal, approved by the Israeli cabinet last Tuesday, calls for the setting free of a further 550 Palestinians in two months. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, preparations are under way to give a triumphant welcome for the released prisoners, who are widely viewed as heroic fighters against oppressive occupation.

However, despite charges by opponents that it represents a cave-in to Hamas, the deal does not meet all of the militant group’s original demands, including the releases of charismatic uprising leader Marwan Barghouti from the rival Fatah movement, and senior figures from the Hamas military wing.

Moreover, 40 of those to be released tomorrow are to be exiled abroad, with Hamas officials reportedly trying to persuade Qatar to give some of them a haven. Also, 144 prisoners from the West Bank among those to be released are to be confined at Israel’s insistence to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

In the West Bank village of Kobar, 47-year-old Hanan Barghouti, a relative of Marwan’s, said she was counting the hours until the release of her brother Nael, who has been in prison for 33 years for the killing of an Israeli man. “We are waiting for him to come out, get married and have a family like everyone else,” she said.

Among those also to be freed are two members of the Hamas military wing, Muad Abu Sharh and Majdi Umru, who were serving 19 life sentences each, after being convicted of responsibility for bombing a civilian Israeli bus in Haifa in 2002.

Ron Kehrmann, whose 17-year-old daughter Tal was killed in the attack, is part of a group that has petitioned Israel’s supreme court to delay implementation of the deal on the grounds that families need more time to study the list and that those freed will return to violence.

He says that releasing the Palestinians will encourage attempted abductions. “Is the blood of the next captured soldier or citizen less red than Gilad Shalit’s blood?” he asked.

A poll for Israeli television’s Channel Ten showed that 69 per cent of Israelis back the swap, 32 per cent oppose it and the remainder had no opinion. This, despite the fact that 62 per cent of respondents also thought freeing the prisoners would “worsen Israel’s security situation”.