Why Gilad Shalit’s release is so important to Israelis

GILAD SHALIT, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid five years ago, will be "coming home in the next few days", according to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. In return, 1,027 Palestinian prisoners will be released.
 
Now 25, the half-French half-Israeli corporal was only 19 when he was seized by Hamas militants in the early hours of 25 June, 2006. He had been manning an army post on the Israeli side of the southern Gazan border when he was attacked by Palestinians who had entered Israel through an underground tunnel.
 
Shalit's captivity is an extremely emotional issue in Israeli society, largely because the country's strict national service system means that nearly everyone has a family member or a close friend in the army.
 
Negotiations over his release have foundered as both sides argued over the details. Hamas have always demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but were unable to reach agreement on who those freed prisoners should be.

The Israeli government has had to decide what price it is willing to pay for one individual, given that many of the prisoners are convicted murderers, or are considered "terrorists" who pose a threat to national security.
 
Over the last five years, there has only been occasional evidence that Shalit is still alive: three handwritten letters; an audio tape in 2007, and a two-minute videotape in 2009 for which Israel had to release 20 female Palestinian prisoners. Hamas have consistently barred the Red Cross from visiting him - a breach of the Geneva Convention - saying that would betray his location.
 
Little is yet known of Shalit's time in captivity, or where he has been held. Earlier this year, Israeli Home Front Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said the soldier's exact whereabouts are known by "a very small group of people" which does not include Hamas leaders.
 
The release deal will see exactly 1,000 male Palestinians released in two batches of 450 and 550. Of the first group, 200 will not be allowed to return to the West Bank, and 40 will be deported overseas. Twenty-seven women will also be released.

Although the list does not include prominent activists such as Marwan Barghouti, the popular Fatah leader who was imprisoned in 2004 for five charges of murder, the news is already being celebrated by Palestinian families throughout the West Bank and Gaza. ·