The final stage of the Gilad Shalit deal was completed on Sunday with the release of 550 Palestinian prisoners. President Shimon Peres pardoned the 43 security prisoners included in the swap. His attitude towards these prisoners remained the same as to those of the first stage of the deal, when he attached a letter to each pardon stressing that he would “neither forget nor forgive their crimes.” Israel Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said that 55 of the 550 prisoners freed this weekend were …More

Gilad Shalit made his first remarks to the Israeli public Saturday since being released in a prisoner exchange with Hamas in October. The brief, pre-recorded video clip expressed Shalit’s thanks to the activists that lobbied for his freedom. The clip was shown to a gathering of some 300 activists from the Free Gilad Shalit campaign at a reunion in Kibbutz Shefayim, and broadcast on Israeli television. "I am happy you came here this evening and that I have this opportunity to speak to you and thank you for …More

Gilad Shalit went on a hunger strike that fatally endangered his health shortly before his release. The move in part lead to the exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, as the terrorist group feared Shalit would die, Yediot Achronot reported Sunday. An intelligence source told the newspaper, "There were those in Hamas who feared that the extreme conditions under which Shalit was being held would mean they could not offer him the help he needed and he would die on them." These fears lead the group to …More

American aid contractor Alan Gross appealed to the United States government to exchange him for five Cuban spies incarcerated in Florida, his rabbi wrote on Monday. The 62-year-old Jew was sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating Cuba's "independence or territorial integrity," but hopes that his freedom could be bargained for with the release of the “Cuban Five” espionage ring. Gross was arrested in 2009 as he was setting up a communications center for the local Jewish community at the behest of …More

To commemorate 25 years since his capture, the family of Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad released excerpts of letters and diary entries he wrote during the first weeks of his captivity to Channel 2 on Saturday. The kidnapped soldier is still officially classified as missing in action, though he is believed to have died in captivity after being transferred to Iran. The collection of letters was mostly intended for his wife Tami and then infant daughter Yuval. They appear to have been written shortly after …More

Dual Israel-American citizen Ilan Grapel landed safely in Israel this evening, signaling the conclusion of the prisoner swap between Egypt and Israel. The law student, accused of espionage, sedition and attempted arson, spent four months as a captive in Egypt before being exchanged for 25 prisoners in a deal arranged by the United States. An envoy freed 25 Egyptians at the Taba crossing, near Eilat, at 5 p.m., just as Grapel landed at Ben-Gurion Airport. Most of the Egyptians released are Bedouins who were jailed …More

Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni spoke out on Sunday, saying that the price paid for Gilad Shalit was too high. According to her, the release of so many prisoners unduly strengthens Hamas’ position in Palestine at the cost of more moderate elements. Comments by Ahmed Jabari, the commander of Hamas’ military wing, lend credence to Livni’s hypothesis. Jabari promised that his organization would make further efforts to kidnap Israeli soldiers to be used as bargaining chips for the release of …More

Egypt and Israel have struck a deal to exchange US-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel for 25 Egyptians jailed in Israel. The 27-year-old law student was arrested in Cairo under suspicion of espionage on June 12, and has been held without trial ever since. Grapel was accused of spying for Israel during and after the Egyptian uprising in February. Egyptians alleged that Grapel gathered intelligence for Israel about the revolution, and incited the public to clash with the ruling military. Since the military assumed control …More

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is an obstacle to regional peace, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said to Ynet. Abbas is entirely too focused on ensuring his legacy as the leader to unite the Palestinians and establish a state. Lieberman hopes Abbas will resign so that peace talks can commence. "He has been threatening to return the keys and resign? That would not be a threat but a blessing, and I wish he would finally do it," Lieberman said. "Whoever comes after him will be better... …More

Shortly after the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip in June 2007 and clobbered its rivals in Fatah, one of its leaders, Mahmoud Zahar, sat in the shade of his orchard and spoke of improving his groups relations with Israel. He recalled earlier face-to-face meetings with senior Israeli officials and mused that if the then opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu came to power, Israel and Hamas might negotiate a truce. It is too soon to know whether the release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit on October …More

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The release of an Israeli soldier by Hamas as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel is reshaping complex regional ties, mostly in favor of Gaza's once isolated Islamic militant rulers. The swap, mediated by Egypt, has strengthened Hamas' bond with the regional powerhouse next door and removed a major irritant from its fraught relationship with Israel. Trading Sgt. Gilad Schalit for 1,027 Palestinians held by Israel also boosted Hamas' flagging popularity at home, at the expense of its main …More

Fifteen Israeli-Arabs were arrested on Thursday after staging an illegal protest outside the Hasharon Prison, against the exclusion of female Palestinian prisoners from the exchange which ensured the safe retune of former captive soldier Gilad Shalit. The police said that some 40 Israeli-Arabs – family members of the female prisoners excluded form the deal – staged a demonstration outside the prison, but did not have the proper permits for the gathering and refused to vacate the premises. …More