GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials in Gaza said today that Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit had been moved from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, beginning an elaborate prisoner swap deal in which hundreds of Palestinian inmates are to be freed in return for the tank crewman held captive since 2006.
The officials said a sport utility vehicle with armed men whisked Schalit across the border and quickly returned to Gaza early today. They said buses of Palestinian prisoners had begun moving from Israel into Egypt en route to Gaza.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Israel’s Army Radio station, citing anonymous Israeli officials, confirmed the report.
In all, Israel is slated to release 1,027 prisoners within two months for Schalit.
The Israel-Hamas deal went ahead despite criticism and court appeals in Israel. Nearly 300 of the prisoners were serving lengthy sentences for involvement in deadly attacks.
The exchange, negotiated through mediators because Israel and Hamas will not talk directly to each other, involves a delicate series of staged releases, each one triggering the next.
In Gaza, Hamas militants deployed in force along the road leading into Egypt where Schalit was to be taken. Shortly thereafter, hundreds of returning Palestinians were slated to enter Gaza on the same road.
When the exchange is over, Schalit — 19 years old at the time of his capture and 25 now — will be free, ending what for Israel has been a prolonged and painful saga. Israel was forced to acknowledge that it had no way of rescuing Schalit in a military operation, though the soldier was held just miles from its border.
Israel agreed to a lopsided prisoner exchange that Hamas officials have openly said will encourage them to capture more soldiers and which will free Palestinians convicted of some of the deadliest attacks against Israeli civilians in recent memory.
When today’s exchange is complete, 477 Palestinians, including 27 women, held in Israeli jails will have been released, several of them after decades behind bars. Another 550 are to be freed in two months.
Once the soldier was in Egypt, officials said, the prisoners would be released. About 100 will be sent to the West Bank, and roughly 30 are to be deported to Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and Syria, which agreed to take prisoners who Israel insisted not be allowed to return home, according to Hamas. The rest will be freed in Gaza.
Schalit would then be brought to an Israeli military base along the Egypt border, where he would be issued a new military uniform and given another medical examination, according to the Israeli military. Although he appeared healthy the last time he was seen — in a brief and scripted 2009 video released by Hamas — he was denied all visits, including by the Red Cross, and the state of his mental and physical health is unclear.
Schalit was to be flown by helicopter to an air force base in central Israel, where he will meet his parents, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defense minister and military chief of staff.
An intense media campaign to free Schalit made him a national symbol in Israel, and all local radio and TV stations held special live broadcasts today.
Numerically uneven swaps for captured or dead Israeli soldiers held by armed Arab groups have taken place a number of times since the 1980s. The last one, in 2008, saw the release of five militants in return for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
In Israel, relatives of victims of Palestinian attacks filed court appeals aimed at stopping the deal. But a poll published Monday showed 79 percent of Israelis backed the deal.
An Egyptian security official said that an American-Israeli dual national held since June in Egypt on suspicions of espionage also would be released shortly after the swap. Ilan Grapel will be released by Egypt in return for about 70 Egyptian prisoners, most serving sentences in Israel on charges of smuggling or illegal entry.
