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Shalit Interview ....jockeying for the rights to conduct the first interview with Gilad after he returned home. But they were all trumped by Egypt's state-controlled media – which conducted its own interview with Shalit, minutes after he was handed over to Egypt by his Hamas captors. Israeli officials are up in arms over that interview, with a government spokesperson saying that Israel had expressed its “shock” to the Egyptian government for forcing Gilad to go through what was clearly a very difficult experience. The interview was conducted by veteran Egyptian TV personality Shahira Amin on behalf of the government-owned Nile...

Amnesty International issued a press release today. Israel-Hamas prisoner swap casts harsh light on detention practices of all sidesGilad Shalit was held captive for five years by Palestinian armed groups The prisoner exchange involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners highlights the need for the humane treatment of all detainees in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today. Obviously it wants to show equivalence. God forbid it should criticize only Hamas. It was not a "prisoner exchange". It was an outrageous ransom paid for a hostage. It only mentions the 477 terrorists that were...

In an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

n an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

Israel PM Binyamin Netanyahu at Gilad Shalit's homecoming Gilad Shalit, 25, landed at home in northern Israel Tuesday evening, Oct. 18, from five years, four months in Hamas captivity, after hours packed with an emotional welcome by his family and government leaders at Tel Nof air base. Before he set out on the last lap of his journey home by helicopter, a medical team carried out tests to be sure the exhausted soldier was fit to travel. Israel agreed to release 1,070 Palestinian terrorists for his freedom. The first batch was transferred to Egypt and the West Bank as the...

Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who's just been released after five years in a Palestinian jail, is relieved to be free. No wonder. To look at him now, compared with earlier photographs, he appears to have lost a good deal of weight. In the press conference this morning he seemed dozy, and his complexion is blanched. He looks as I imagine someone to look who's just emerged from lengthy seclusion in a darkened room. He appears undernourished.

As I watch the unfolding of the Shalit exchange across multiple television news channels, including Israeli, France, CNN, BBC and UK I find the most of the reporting disconcerting. Why? The reporters are either ill informed, intentional in distorting the truth or truly ignorant. There is no other possibility. Let me clarify a point repeatedly, across almost all of these news stations regarding Shalit’s abduction. He was taken on 25 June 2006 by Hamas terrorist from Gaza in a cross-border raid. A Hamas terrorist group attacked a Merkava Tank Mark 3, which was guarding the security fence and an army...

Gilad Shalit, the Israel soldier held captive for five years by Hamas, has been freed today in Gaza in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Gilad Shalit told Egyptian media he was told a week ago he would be freed. “I was happy to hear it, but I was suspicious,” he said. “I waited years, but I believed I would find myself free.” He said the first thing he wants to do when he gets home is to “be with my family and meet my friends and speak with them. “I want to tell people about my experience.” Despite his having been in captivity without communication with the outside world for more than five years, Egyptian media asked him difficult and loaded questions. Asked if...

Americans are indeed incredulous about the Israeli decision to trade so many truly bad guys for Gilad. I asked one of my Israeli friends for his thoughts on this. "How can it be possible," I say, "for you to negotiate - for you to talk about win-win situations - when you are "talking" with evil incarnate? I don't talk to the cockroaches in my kitchen... I kill the sonsobitches! And if one of them bites my ass, I kill a thousand of them! You take one of mine, I don't 'trade' for one of yours... I kill thousands of yours!...

Live feed. Pictures of the ongoing release. Either it has already happened or is now happening. This is in Hebrew, but there are some good live footage shots.

Reports said that Hamas had beefed up its forces along the Gaza border fence Monday night. Terrorists belonging to the Izzadin al-Qasam brigades had taken up positions near the border fence as a precaution against an Israeli attack before the release of terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Reports said that IDF planes and drones have been hovering in the skies over Gaza for several days, and that Hamas fears an Israeli “trick”to rescue Shalit without releasing terrorists.

The terrorists who held kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit for over five years will take center stage alongside Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal in Cairo when he greets the first 477 of 1,027 terrorists being traded for Shalit's release. Some observers, who noted Israel only promised not to pursue the freed terrorists on condition they do not return to terrorism, made no such promises about those who abducted him and held him captive. According to the Hamas affiliated Palestine Information Center website, the trade of Shalit for the first 477 security prisoners - most of whom are terrorists - will begin at...

The government is preparing to free the murders of the Dickstein couple – and also may level their eldest son’s home in Beit El. The house is located in Ulpana neighborhood the community and is under threat of demolition. Yosef Yaakov Dickstein, 44, and his wife Hana, 42, and their son Shmuel, age 10, were murdered by Arab terrorists in the nearby community of Psagot, along with Sergeant Elazar Leibowitz, 21, of Hevron. Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, who voted with the majority of the Cabinet to approve release more than 1,000 terrorists for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad...

The writer, a veteran right wing newsman, analyzes the security aspects of the Shalit deal. They are better than the previous ones, he says, leaving moral and political considerations aside for now. Haggai Huberman The author is a noted military correspondent, a veteran reporter for Arutz Sheva and regular columnist in the Hebrew weekly BeSheva. â–º More from this writer If I were a cabinet minister, I would vote for the deal to ransom Shalit, not because it is a good one, which it most definitely is not, but because for once, just this once, this is a deal that...

Hamas has made additional last minute demands of Israel in return for freeing abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Analysts say the demands could imperil the deal or postpone its implementation. While Hamas kingpin Khaled Mashaal has boasted that all Palestinian Authority (PA) female terrorist prisoners will be freed, his organization appears to have discovered at week's end that there are more such prisoners that it thought. The number of female PA terrorists in Israel's jails is 35, not 27 as Hamas apparently believed until now. Jacqueline Alfaraja, a lawyer for the PA's Prisoners' Club, told the PA based Ma'an news...

Aside from debating whether or not to vote for a prisoner exchange deal that would set Gilad Shalit free, several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet offered several lines of action Israel could take following the deal's execution. Standing head and shoulders above most were Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas and his party member Meshulam Nahari, who said Israel should consider releasing Jewish terrorists who carried out attacks against Palestinians. "It's the right thing to do as part of the balances in Israel's society," Yishai said, adding that such a move would not "undo the releasing of hundreds...

Israel has agreed to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a lone soldier held by Gaza’s Islamist rulers. The deal to release Gilad Shalit resolves one of the most emotive issues in the Middle East. Shalit, then 19, was captured by militants who tunnelled their way out of Gaza and forced him back over the border in 2006. The pact is virtually certain to improve the climate for restarting peace talks that have been stalled for over a year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that the deal was 'finally summarised and both sides signed'. In the Gaza Strip, a...

A deal has been reached which will see Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit freed by Palestinian militants. Mr Shalit was kidnapped on the border with Gaza in 2006. Previous negotiations to secure his freedom have all broken down, however now the Israeli cabinet is meeting to discuss an agreement with Hamas. It is believed it will involve a swap deal for Palestinian prisoners, however Sky's Middle East correspondent Emma Hurd says there is no confirmation of the number of inmates involved.

For five years, Israel has practically begged Hamas to accept hundreds of terrorists in exchange for the return of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas has consistently refused to make a deal, and has just as consistently refused to budge even one inch from its opening position, demanding the release of some 1,400 terrorists in exchange for Shalit. It's time for a new approach, says Ron Kehrmann, father of Tal Kehrmann, who was killed in 2003 when terrorists bombed a bus she was riding on in Haifa. And as one who has lost a child to terrorism, Kehrmann has paid...