Thousands of jubilant Gazans took to the streets of the impoverished enclave on Wednesday, October 12, in celebration of a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel.
“Happiness brought tears to my eyes,” Abdel-Karim Abu Attaya, 76, told Reuters.
The Gazan father is waiting for a reunion with his son Mohammed, who has served 20 years in an Israeli jail for being a Hamas member.
“I am the happiest man. I congratulate the family of Gilad Shalit as well,” said the father of eleven.
“I hope all Palestinian prisoners will be freed.”
Hamas and Israel announced late Tuesday a prisoner swap deal to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Israel would free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in return for Shalit.
Israel will free 450 Palestinian prisoners in the coming days in the first phase of the exchange while Hamas releases Shalit.
A further 550 Palestinians would be freed two months later.
Yoram Cohen, head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, said 203 freed Palestinians would go into exile in countries not yet named.
Some 110 prisoners would go home to the West Bank and Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) and 131 to Gaza. Six Israeli Arabs would also be released.
The list did not include Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti, who serves a life sentence in prison for his role in attacks on Israelis during a Palestinian uprising, or Ahmed Saadat, a resistance leader who master-minded an attack on an Israeli minister in 2001.
There are nearly 9,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Resistance Won
Gazans see the prisoner swap deal as a victory for the Palestinian resistance groups against Israel.
“Today the resistance talks,” an activist cried over the loudspeaker of one mosque.
“Today the enemy submitted to our demands and that was just the start.”
Joyful Gazans fired guns in the air and blared their car horns in celebration of the swap deal.
“We must continue in our struggle until all prisoners are freed,” said resident Abdallah Abu Huwaidy.
The prisoner swap is seen as the best news Gaza has had for years.
The enclave has been under a crippling Israeli siege since Hamas came to power in 2006.
The blockade was further tightened after Hamas took control of Gaza following infighting with rival Fatah in 2007.
Israel launched a three-week deadly offensive on Gaza in 2009, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians and injured thousands.
Abu Attaya, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, whose fighters joined Hamas in the capture of Shalit in 2006, said resistance fighters would kidnap more Israeli soldiers until all Palestinian prisoners are freed.
“The coming weeks and month will witness more responses and more, similar operations,” he said.
Israel has carried out several lopsided prisoner swaps in the past, notably in 1985 when hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for several soldiers captured by Hizbullah group in Lebanon.
“We will continue the same path to kidnap Zionist soldiers in order to clear all prisons,” said Abu Attaya.
Source: OnIslam & News Agencies
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