PRISONER EXCHANGE DEAL REACHED BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL

 ISRAEL: ARAB SPRING FORCED US TO ACCEPT

HAMAS'S DEMANDS FOR FREEING SHALIT

 

 Nael Barghouthi captured on 4 April 1978, Gilad Shalit captured 25 June 2006

By Khalid Amayreh

The Voice of Palestine

October 10, 2011

After losing all hopes for rescuing imprisoned Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is held in the Gaza Strip, Israel has apparently agreed to accept virtually all Hamas’s conditions for a prisoner swap deal that would also see the release from Israeli jails and dungeons of as many as a thousand Palestinian prisoners, including men, women, and children.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said an agreement with Hamas had been reached and that Shalit would be returning home in the coming days.

Speaking during an emergency session of his cabinet Tuesday evening, Netanyahu said there was a window of opportunity to release Shalit which he said the government decided to seize.

Acting otherwise, he added, and in light of the “storms” blowing throughout the Arab world, could mean that “Shalit may never come back.”

Netanyahu was apparently alluding to the Arab Spring and the collapse of pro-Israeli regimes in both Egypt and Tunisia .

Hamas’ officials in the Gaza Strip and abroad have confirmed the conclusion of a swap agreement with Israel.

In Damascus, Hamas’ leader Khaled Mishaal revealed details of the long-awaited deal. He told an impromptu news conference in the Syrian capital that the swap deal stipulated the release of a thousand male prisoners as well as 27 female prisoners.

He also pointed out that the deal would see prisoners with multiple life-imprisonment terms from Jerusalem and the Arab community in Israel released.

Mishaal added that the deal would be carried out in two stages, first the transfer of Shalit outside the Gaza Strip, which would coincide with the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners, and second the release of the rest of the prisoners once Shalit returns to Israel.

Mishaal saluted the people of Gaza for their sacrifices and also thanked Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Germany for their positive roles in concluding the deal.

Abu Ubaida, a resistance Islamist leader in Gaza told al-Jazeera Television Tuesday night that the agreement was a landmark victory for Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions.

“This is a great victory for the Palestinian people. We send this gift to the martyrs, including Sheikh Ahmed Yasin.”

He said that Israel was forced to accede to virtually all the demands and conditions of Hamas.

According to the agreement, all women and children prisoners will also be freed.

Among prisoner leaders to be released are the main commanders of Hamas’s resistance wing including Abdullah Barghouthi, Yahya Sinwar, Abdullah al Sayed as well as leaders of the Islamic Jihad organization. Marwan el Barghouthi, the imprisoned Fatah leader, and Ahmed Saadat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) will be among the freed prisoners.

A spokesman of the resistance movement in Gaza, Abu Mujahed, attributed the success of the deal to “the resilience and unflinching determination of the resistance to see to it that all our demands are met.”

“It was not easy, but eventually we are about to get what we wanted.”

He added that Palestinian freedom fighters knew from the very inception that Israel wouldn’t agree to free that many prisoners unless it was forced to.

“Israel only understands this language.”

Abu Mujahed said the deal also stipulated that Israel would meet all the demands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who have gone on an open-ended hunger strike in protest against worsening prison conditions.

Egypt reportedly played a key role in concluding the deal.

An Egyptian official was quoted as saying that “after 64 months of tough negotiations we were able to complete the deal. It was a very difficult task, which included thousands of hours of negotiations.”

Egyptian officials have also said that the deal which has been reached also includes the release of accused Israeli spy Ilan Garpel.

During deliberations leading up to the Israeli acceptance of the deal, Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers that failing to endorse the deal would probably doom Shalit’s fate forever.

“If the government fails to approve the deal, the whole move to release Shalit could go down the drain, conceivably postponing his release by many years.”

Netanyahu spoke of “powerful storms” hovering over the Arab world, which he said would make rescuing Shalit utterly unlikely if the government didn’t seize this opportunity.

The deal is widely viewed as a great moral and political booster for Hamas. It is also likely to contribute to further enhancing relations between Hamas and Cairo.

Moreover, many Palestinians feel the deal will be especially auspicious in terms of pushing national reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas forward.

Hamas’s fighters, along with fighters from the People Resistance and Army of Islam took part in the military operation on 25 June, 2006, during which Shalit was taken prisoners.

Israel tried in vain every conceivable feat and trick to repatriate Shalit, including launching widespread and murderous aggressions against the Gaza Strip in which thousands of Palestinians lost their lives.

 MISHAAL: THE DEAL STIPULATES RELEASE OF 1027 PALESTINIAN CAPTIVES

Voice of Palestine

October 10, 2011

DAMASCUS, (

Head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Mishaal, revealed that the prisoner exchange deal reached between Hamas and the Israeli occupation through German and Egyptian mediation, stipulates the release of 1027 Palestinian captives in exchange for Israeli captive Gilad Shalit.

In a televised speech on Tuesday evening Mishaal said: "The exchange deal will be in two stages; the first stage will see 450 captives released within a week, the second stage will see the release of 550 after two months of the first stage."

He also said that all 27 female captives will be released and the first stage will include 315 captives serving life sentences.

He added that his movement was keen on including captives who entered prison at various stages of the Palestinian struggle from various factions as well as captives from various areas; Jerusalem, 1948-occupied Palestine, the Golan and the diaspora, pointing out this was an expression of the unity of the Palestinian people everywhere.

Mishaal described the deal as a “national achievement,” adding “To my brothers in the PA and Palestinian factions inside and outside Palestine I say this achievement belongs to all of us. We are proud of it and prepare for further achievements. Let us join hands and plan for more achievements for our national project until we liberate out Palestine and establish our state."

He promised that his movement will spare no efforts to get the rest of the Palestinian captives released.

He praised the Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian factions who participated in capturing the occupation soldier Gilad Shalit to exchange him for Palestinian captives.

GILAD ATZMON: ISRAEL BETTER THINK TWICE

September 7, 2011

Gilad Atzmon

 

As the rift between Israel and Turkey deepens, the Israeli media is preparing its crowd for another possible exciting bloody conflict.

Israel’s leading news outlet Ynet, published yesterday a detailed comparison between Israel’s and Turkey’s military capacity ~ it outlines the size of the air force, navy, ground forces in the respective countries. “Turkey”, it says, “posses much bigger navy but our air force is larger.’

I guess that this is what one would expect from Israel, a morbid collective driven by war enthusiasm and some bizarre craving for bloody conflict.

We have to remember, that at least on the face of it, this new emerging rift between Israel and Turkey, is not about land, oil or assets. It is all about apology.   Relations between the two old allies have soured further in recent days after the publication of the UN investigation into Israel's murderous assault on a Turkish Mavi Marmara in high seas. 

In the attack nine peace activists were murdered; some of them were clearly executed in cold blood.  Turkey demands Israel’s. apology.  For some reason Israel failed to react. The meaning of it is simple. Israel prefers the prospect of a violent development instead of confronting its sin.

I will make myself as simple, short and clear just to make sure that the Israelis and their allies around the world understand how futile their agenda is.

Islam is unbeatable and indestructible.

The Israelis should remember their latest military blunders. In 2006 its army was humiliated by the Hezbollah, a small Lebanese paramilitary organization. In just a few weeks the heroic Hezbollah managed to bring Israel to its knees. 

In 2008-9 Israeli Army mounted a massive attack on Gaza; the initial objective was to dismantle the democratically elected Hamas. Israel murdered more than 1400 Palestinians but it achieved none of its military objectives. 

Hamas and Hezbollah won these battles

without air force, navy or tanks.

In fact resilience

was enough to defeat the IDF.

But Israel is not alone; 

The English speaking Empire is also heavily beaten in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Similarly, Iraqi insurgency and Taliban do not posses tanks, F 16s or submarines. 

In the age of Islamic resistance, tables of contents with numbers of tanks, vessels, and airplanes are obsolete.  

It is the spirit and the will rather than the tank that wins the battle.  

This spirit better be called The Islam Spring, and it is unbeatable indeed.

The message for Israelis is plainly clear. 

Israel and its supporting lobbies had better learn how to contain their inherent violent tendencies. 

Israel cannot win this battle. 

The sooner the Israelis encompass this obvious fact, the better it is for Israel and for world peace.

MEDICS: AIRSTRIKE 'INJURES 7' IN NORTHERN GAZA

Qassam rocket (archives) by Tsafrir Abayov

Gosh looks pretty dangerous compared to Israeli weapons!

Now that Palestine has its request for Statehood up and in the works we can expect a few things from Israel to take place. First as we have seen, Netanyahu and the other war hawks of Israel and America, will threaten and sabre rattle, perhaps even bribe, other nations to support them in their veto of such a bid by Palestine. As the time draws nearer, their hasbara, bullying, and chicanery will only increase.

Second, and this is already happening, we can expect Israel to treat the Palestinian people even worse, aggress on them more, push more, kill more, evict more, create more blocks, cut down more imports, and to just keep increasing pressure on the Palestinian people. They want to push so hard that finally Palestine shoves back and, with Israeli media control, make sure the Palestinians lose face internationally.  If all else fails, they will push until they feel they have been given the right blow Palestine a la Operation Cast Lead II.

An explosion following a missile strike in Rafah [MaanImages, File]

July 17, 2011

Ma’An News Agency

GAZA CITY

Seven people were wounded in Gaza on Sunday by what medical sources said was an Israeli airstrike, but Israel denied it had carried out any such raid.

Emergency and ambulance services official Adham Abu Salmiya said all of the victims were members of the Zaanin family. They were evacuated to Beit Hanoun Hospital.

Abu Salmiya highlighted that over the past two weeks, three people were killed and more than 20 were injured in Israeli raids on the coastal enclave. Among the injured, he added, were six children and two girls.

But a spokeswoman for the Israeli military said "there was no IDF activity in Gaza overnight or this morning."

(Do you believe Israel or the pile of bodies?)

Israeli forces have been launching strikes on a daily basis over the past four days.

Meanwhile, three so-called Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday night hit open areas in the western Negev, Israeli media reported Sunday morning.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The first projectile exploded at around 1 a.m. within the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. Two additional projectiles landed in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

On Saturday, a Palestinian man was injured by an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza. Two days earlier, an airstrike killed one man and injured five others in the tunnel area near Egypt.

Israeli army officials and Palestinian security sources said the most recent raid targeted a group of militants as they prepared to launch a homemade projectile toward Israel from the east of Gaza City.

The commander of Israel's army Benny Gantz held an urgent meeting Friday to discuss the situation along the border with Gaza and "practical steps" to end projectile fire, news reports said.

Israel's Hebrew-language daily Maariv said the meeting was attended by senior commanders of the Israeli army in various wings including the commander of the southern region.

The army officials said they held Hamas "fully responsible for this situation," allegedly for deliberately failing to stop the firing of projectiles into southern Israel after a sharp decrease of several months.

The past few days of rocket fire and airstrikes represent the first significant recurrence of violence in the area since April, when airstrikes killed 19 Palestinians after a missile fired from Gaza killed a teenager.

Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control in 2007.

IDF ESTIMATES ROUND OF VIOLENCE OVER

SOON TO BE FOLLOWED BY WIDE-SCALE CONFRONTATION

 ‘Hamas has been busy rebuilding its forces for the past two years, and this can only mean we’re facing an all-out clash,’ says senior officer

 

Source ~ ynet

April 12, 2011

One round of escalation may be over, but the IDF is already preparing for the next one ~ despite sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, military officials estimate that the relative lull will be followed by a large confrontation at the Strip.

Last month, after terror organizations fired Grad rockets at Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time since Operation Cast Lead, voices within the military echelons claimed Israel’s reaction was too restrained. This time, however, the voices are different.

“Everyone knows that the IDF has much greater power and capabilities, and many in the public believe that we should use all our force,” a security establishment official told Ynet.

“But on the ground, the reality is much more complicated, and there are other considerations, including unwanted escalation on the other side. Therefore the balancing point is very important. We need to know how to transmit a message to the other side, while at the same time knowing where and when to stop,” the source added.

While some regarded the response to the firing of an anti-tank missile at a school bus as being too harsh, IDF senior officials are in agreement that the next round of battle is only a matter of time.

“The Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been busy rebuilding its forces for the past two years, and this can only mean that we are facing an all-out confrontation,” said a senior IDF officer.

Military officials have voiced concern that the deterrence effect achieved following Operation Cast Lead has been undermined, and that Hamas might carry out a terror attack that will spark another round of fighting.

“The dynamics in this area is based on results, that is to say an event with harsh results triggers a broader reaction, and therefore the situation is highly explosive and sensitive,” said the officer.

Sources within the IDF estimated that the clashes around the border fence will continue, “Everyone is on high alert; it’s clear that the terror organizations have a high motivation level, and therefore the soldiers know that the next event will take everyone by surprise,” he said.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian source claimed Monday that Israel and the Palestinian factions had reached an unwritten agreement for a state of calm. Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted the source as saying Egypt was working to strike a deal and has asked UN envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry to help in negotiations.

According to the source, Israel pledged to halt strikes in Gaza in exchange for a halt in rocket fire.

‘Wide-scale operation not in our interest’ 

The political echelon shared the feeling that the current round of violence is close to an end. Jerusalem officials estimated at the end of the Security Cabinet meeting that Hamas and Israel would cease fire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that if Hamas were to cease fire, Israel would do the same. 

However, Jerusalem officials denied that Israel had reached an understanding on a truce with Hamas, despite a Palestinian declaration.

Addressing the possibility of a wide-scale operation in Gaza, a cabinet minister told Ynet that “in any event, it is not in our interest to launch an extensive operation until after Independence Day, so for now we seek to calm things down. However, if the rocket fire is resumed and Israel hit, there’s no telling what will happen.”

Defense establishment officials believe that during Tuesday’s Security Cabinet meeting, the ministers will approve funding of more than $200 million for four additional Iron Dome missile defense system batteries. The move is expected to be approved by the government on Sunday.

The new batteries will be activated only in a year or two, and the defense establishment seeks to purchase a total of 12 or 13 batteries.

Addressing Iron Dome’s operational abilities against the Gaza rocket fire, a state official said that “although the system is functioning in an outstanding manner, it’s not obvious that we’ll be able to deal with a massive barrage of missiles for long, mainly because of financial constraints.

“Therefore, our current goal is to restore calm and lead to a truce. All ministers who attended today’s cabinet meeting agreed that Israel must avoid an operation in Gaza and act according to Hamas’ conduct.”

NEXT GAZA WAR IS GETTING CLOSER

Surely not again! This is not why the people voted in Hamas!

April 8, 2011

After a week-long lull in violence along the Gaza border, the southern front is heating up once again following Israel’s assassination of three Hamas men in Khan Yunis.

 

After a week-long lull in violence along the Gaza border, the southern front is heating up once again following an Israeli assassination on Saturday of three Hamas men in Khan Yunis, one of them a senior member of the organization’s military wing. According to the IDF, the three men were planning to abduct Israeli tourists in Sinai over the Passover holiday. Hamas denies the allegation.

While the dispute over the facts is important, the overall trend also matters. This is the third round of violence between the two sides since February. After two years of quiet, since Operation Cast Lead, tension is once again boiling to the surface.

Palestinians surrounding the wreckage of a vehicle following an Israeli air strike that killed three of Hamas militants near Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, April 2, 2011

A month passed between the first and second clash; only a week between the second and third. The conclusion is that the checks and balances that had influenced the sides with some success are no longer working as well as they used to.

The road to Cast Lead II is getting closer,

despite both Israel and the Hamas

loudly proclaiming

that they have no intention of going there.

As far as facts are concerned, Hamas is playing a double game.

It says it doesn’t want a war, but it’s ready to risk breaking the rules to gain some strategic advantage, like taking more Israeli hostages.

At the same time, it is losing some control

~ intentionally or not ~

of the smaller factions, which never lack the motivation

to shoot rockets at southern Israel.

Israel, for its part, needs to counter the Hamas denial with a persuasive explanation of how yesterday’s assassination was necessary to prevent a major terrorist attack.

Despite Hamas’ threats, by last night the group had still not responded to the assassination. This may not necessarily be significant, though: In the last round of violence, the Islamist organization waited three days before responding to the killing of two of its members with a barrage of 50 mortar shells striking the Negev.

Members of Hamas’ armed wing are well aware that their men are defecting to groups calling for global jihad ~ Al-Qaida wannabes, to quote incoming Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen.

Hamas knows that failing to respond to the assassination may lead to even further defections and harm its image as a “resistance” organization, but it also knows that a full-on confrontation with Israel will exact a heavy price.

Hamas is also affected by events further afield ~ with its primary patron, Syria, embroiled in anti-government protests.

Israel, meanwhile, can draw some satisfaction from a belated declaration by Judge Richard Goldstone, who implied in a Washington Post op-ed published on Friday that his committee made rash and exaggerated conclusions in accusing the IDF of committing war crimes during Operation Cast Lead.

He also admitted there was not enough weight given to crimes perpetrated by Hamas, and that the organization did nothing to investigate the claims against it following the report’s publication.

The way things are going right now, Goldstone may soon have a new opportunity to investigate Hamas attacks on civilian populations.