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Some Palestinian prisoners to be released to Turkey
Israel announced on Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas had signed a deal for the release of the captive Israeli soldier. Hamas will release Shalit, captured in 2006, in return for release by Israel of more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said.
Meshaal said Israel will release 1,027 prisoners in two stages. Within a week, 450 will be swapped for Shalit and the rest will be freed two months later. But not all of them are to be allowed to return to West Bank or Gaza, according to media reports. The Israeli-Hamas deal has limited the numbers allowed to return to the West Bank to 110. Only 203 will be released to Gaza and the rest to Turkey and Europe, Guardian reported.
Turkish daily Radikal said about 40 people who are not allowed to return to West Bank will be sent to Turkey and other countries. Another report, published in daily Hürriyet, said Israel did not allow these people to be sent to Syria, Lebanon or Egypt.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu welcomed the deal and said on Wednesday that Turkey was involved in the process that led to the Hamas-Israel agreement, making “contributions at different levels and different phases” of the process.
Davutoğlu, however, declined to elaborate on release of Palestinian prisoners to Turkey, saying these issues will be taken up during the “swap phase.”
The foreign minister also said Turkey was informed by Hamas about the deal ahead of the agreement.
Turkey’s role in efforts to work out an agreement on prisoner swap came despite a political crisis in its relations with Israel, sparked by a deadly takeover of a Turkish aid ship in May 2010 by Israeli commandos that resulted in deaths of eight Turks and a Turkish American.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was involved in securing the deal and added that he was “pleasantly surprised” by Turkey's help in securing Shalit’s release.
"I was told that it was done by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," Peres said. "They put everything aside and favored the humanitarian side over politics.”
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