Who wins in the prisoner swap deal? Who cares? people are free to go to their families. Haruna.


Alessio Romenzi / AFP - Getty Images

A picture taken on October 17, 2011 shows a mural depicting captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, as Palestinians prepare for the first stage of an unprecedented prisoner exchange deal under which Israel has agreed to free 1,027 Palestinian detainees in return for the Israeli soldier who was captured in 2006.


  

By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer 

JERUSALEM – As Israelis and Palestinians prepare for Tuesday’s release of the abducted soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of prisoners, both sides are weighing the price of freedom.
Shalit's freedom comes with the release by Israel of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Despite the five years of protracted negotiations, the euphoria of the surprise announcement is now tempered by a public debate on both sides about whether or not the deal should have been done at all.  
On Tuesday morning, Shalit will be taken by Hamas officials out of Gaza, to the Sinai Peninsula to be handed over to Egyptian officials. They will then transfer him to waiting Israeli authorities.
Simultaneously Israeli will deliver by the busload 477 prisoners, many of whom have been convicted of attacks or conspiring to commit attacks on Israelis.  The remaining 550 prisoners will be released within the next two months. The released prisoners include some of those accused of attacks that have seared the Israeli psyche, such as the suicide bombing at the Sbarro Pizzeria in 2001, in which 16 Israelis were killed.
The Hamas leadership is praising the deal as a victory. Khalid Mishal, the organization’ political leader, declared from his headquarters in Damascus that "this is a national achievement that we should be proud of."

Gali Tibbon / AFP - Getty Images

Israelis who lost relatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict march with white flags during a protest against a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, as they march towards Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Monday.  

But the conditions agreed to for the release were too restrictive, say officials of the rival Fatah party. More than 200 of those released will be deported to other countries, including Qatar and Turkey. Many of those originally from the West Bank will not be allowed to return home, but will instead be deported to Gaza.
And despite the staggering number of prisoners being released, they do not include high-profile leaders like Marwan Barghouti, a member of Fatah, and widely seen as a future leader of the Palestinian Authority. Claims by Hamas that all of the female prisoners would be released are now being disputed since it has emerged that there are an additional six to eight women who are unaccounted for and still in prison.
Similarly, Israeli families of those killed in past attacks, not only see justice being thwarted by the release of those behind the attacks, but also an increased threat to Israel's own security. Israeli media are showing a split in public acceptance of the deal, where there is an embrace of the return of a soldier that had become a national obsession, combined with a fear of the uncertainty that now more kidnappings or attacks could happen. 
In reality, both Israeli and Hamas negotiators may have been grasping for a deal as the conditions for reaching it were in danger of being overtaken by the changing landscape caused by the Arab Spring.
The new Egyptian government, which has been the intermediary between the sides, is now more influenced by public opinion, which is openly hostile to Israel. Egyptian negotiators though were continuing to pressure Hamas into reaching a deal with Israel. Hamas, which is based in Syria, now is more wary than every of its sanctuary in Damascus as the unrest destabilizes the Assad government. Hamas has denied reports that it’s weighing alternative locations, such as Cairo.

Ammar Awad / Reuters

Palestinians, neighbors of Palestinian prisoner Ibtisam Issawi, hang a banner at her home in the Arab East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber on Monday as they prepare for her release in a prisoner swap that is expected to take place on Tuesday.  





Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged the pressure to strike a deal.  "I believe that we have reached the best deal we could have at this time, when storms are sweeping the Middle East. I do not know if in the near future we would have been able to reach a better deal or any deal at all,” he said. “It is very possible that this window of opportunity that opened because of the circumstances would close indefinitely and we would never have been able to bring Gilad home at all. Hamas has also been concerned about losing its battle for the hearts and minds of Palestinians to Fatah, which controls the West Bank. Hamas has seen its credibility eclipsed by the rival Fatah leader and president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.His performance at the U.N. last month, submitting an application for full recognition of Palestine as a member state in defiance of a U.S. has boosted his popularity among all Palestinians, including those in Hamas-controlled Gaza.But the failure to unite all Palestinians, to negotiate with the Israelis and deliver results, has been a crucial test for the rival Palestinian factions.



By holding onto Shalit in order to extract the highest concessions from Israelis, Hamas hopes to cement its standing as an effective authority for Palestinians. As a top Hamas official, Mahmoud Zahar put it on Sunday night, Abbas "negotiated with Israel for a million years and hasn't achieved a deal like this one.”
 


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