Egypt to Free Jailed U.S.-Israeli Citizen Accused of Spying

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen imprisoned in Egypt on spy suspicions since June will be released soon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement Monday.

The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel will release 25 Egyptian prisoners in exchange.

Ilan Grapel was arrested in Cairo on June 12 and has been held without charge since. Egypt's state TV confirmed that a deal was made and said the swap would be carried out on Thursday.

Grapel, who is 27, was suspected by Egyptian officials of spying for Israel during the height of Egypt's uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. Israel and his relatives in the U.S. denied Grapel was a spy, saying he worked for a Cairo legal aid project.

The Israeli government will convene a special Security Cabinet meeting Tuesday to approve the deal, the statement said. The list of prisoners included in the deal will be published so that Israelis would be able to appeal. The swap can take place 48 hours after the prisoners' names are made public.

"In the framework of Israel and Egyptian efforts and with the help of the United States, Egypt has agreed to release Ilan Grapel. Israel has agreed to release 25 Egyptian prisoners," the statement said

The statement said there are no "security prisoners" on the list, Israeli shorthand for militants. It is assumed that the Egyptians to be freed are mostly smugglers working the porous border between the two countries, sneaking into Israel with contraband and people seeking asylum or work.

Last week Egypt was instrumental in mediating a deal that won freedom for an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, held for more than five years by the militant Hamas rulers of Gaza. Under that deal, Israel freed 455 Palestinian prisoners and is set to free hundreds more in two months. Some were convicted in deadly attacks against Israelis, including involvement with suicide bombings.

Schalit was captured in a 2006 cross-border raid in which Palestinian militants killed two other soldiers.,

Israeli officials said Grapel's release is not connected to the Schalit deal. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man and did his compulsory military service during the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, where he was wounded. Israeli news websites have published what they identified as wartime pictures of Grapel lying in his hospital bed.

Grapel later returned to the U.S. for law school.

His father, Daniel Grapel, spoke briefly to Israel's Channel 10 TV from his home in New York Monday evening. "I haven't been officially notified, but I do know that things are happening between the U.S, Egyptian and Israeli governments," he said.

Grapel's connections to Israel, including his past military service, are easy to find on the Internet, adding to doubts that he was a spy.

He appears to have traveled to Egypt under his real name and made no secret of his Israeli links, including his past military service.

Israeli and Egyptian newspapers and websites often run pictures of Grapel in his army uniform, taken from his Facebook page. Pictures of him with protesters in Cairo's Tahrir square, the epicenter of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, also lifted from Grapel's Facebook page are frequently displayed.

Grapel graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in international studies and was planning to return to Emory for his third and final year of law studies.

Since Mubarak's ouster, Egypt's military rulers have often warned against what they call "foreign" attempts to destabilize the country. Egypt, like other Arab states, has a long history of blaming internal problems on Israel.

Shalit is back home, After 5 years in captivity

Freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit arrived safe and sound in his northern Israeli hometown, feeling "good" in his first day of freedom after more than five years in Hamas captivity, but suffering small injuries from shrapnel wounds.
In what was an arduous and emotional day for Israelis and Palestinians, Shalit won his release Tuesday morning in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, whose walk to freedom drew cheers from thousands in Gaza and the West Bank.
"We can say that we have experienced the rebirth of a son," his father, Noam Shalit, told reporters.


"Gilad has come home after an exhausting and long struggle. As I have said quite often, we were told that we were tilting at windmills. It was exhausting, but ultimately we managed to bring him home. As you have seen today he came home and walked up the steps that he left, and has come home, went through the door that he left so many days ago, 1,942 days ago."
The first of several hundred released Palestinian prisoners made journeys of their own.
According to Syria's official SANA news agency, 16 arrived Wednesday in Damascus. Fifteen arrived in Doha, reported the official (QNA) Qatar News Agency.

Egypt's state-run al-Ahram newspaper said 46 Palestinians left Cairo and headed to Qatar, Turkey and Syria. Turkey's semi-official Anatolian agency said 10 are coming to that country.
According to Hams' al-Aqsa TV, Ahlam al-Tamimi arrived in Amman, Jordan, from Cairo early Wednesday. She was a university student who served life terms for being an accomplice in a 2001 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem restaurant that killed at least 15 people.
Shalit came via Egypt because it acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, which do not have relations. He was given medical checks that showed him to be in good health and cleared him to return home. He was flown to Tel Nof air base, where he was reunited with his family and saluted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on arrival there.


A helicopter flew him and his family home from the air base to the northern Galilee village of Mitzpe Hila. He made his way by vehicle from the helipad to the village and was whisked into his home.
Greeted along the road by hundreds of chanting and flag-waving supporters, people in the Galilee community laid out white roses and hung banners to welcome Shalit back, erupting in joy at the return of the young man who became an international cause célèbre.
Noam Shalit grabbed him in a bear hug, held him tight and kissed him as they were reunited at the air base. The father told Israeli television earlier it was the happiest day of his life.
"He basically came out of a dark hole, in a dark basement, and came out of that to a great crowd. I'm sure that this was an amazing experience for him when he arrived here at our village to see all of this going on. "


Noam Shalit said his son "feels good" and is "very happy to be home."
"But he is suffering from a number of small injuries that have remained with him because he wasn't treated properly. Shrapnel wounds, and also the results of a lack of sunlight. Now he has had extensive medical tests and he will have appropriate treatment from the Israeli medical forces," he said.


Noam Shalit said his son couldn't communicate with people in his own language in captivity. "The only thing he was able to do is communicate with his abductors and his guards."
"Of course it's difficult for him to just expose himself to so many people because he's been in isolation, really in isolation, for so many days and so many years."
He told reporters that conditions in captivity at the beginning of his son's ordeal were difficult but they eventually improved. He said Gilad was able to listen to the radio and was able to watch some television, particularly the Arab TV stations.
The father thanked all of the people who showed up to welcome his son "so warmly, so supportively with such solidarity and such warmth" and addressed the concerns of the survivors of people whose relatives were slain by some of the Palestinian inmates who were freed.
"We definitely identified with them and totally understand their anguish. And we understand the price that they are paying for Gilad's freedom."



Gilad Shalit: Israeli captive freed at last
Shalit learned about a week ago that he was going to be released, though he "felt it for the last month," he told Egyptian television after his release.
"I missed my family. I missed going out and meeting people," he said in the emotional interview, where he appeared pale, tired, tense, and sometimes out of breath, although he was seated in a chair.
"I hope this deal will move the peace process forward," he told Shahira Amin of Egyptian TV, saying he would be glad if the remaining Palestinian prisoners are released "as long as they do not go back to fighting Israel."


Why Israelis believe one soldier is worth 1,000 Palestinian prisoners
The interview came shortly after Egyptian television showed a short clip of Shalit walking unaided with an escort of about a half-dozen people. He looked thin and dazed, wearing a dark baseball cap and collared shirt.


Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israel Defense Forces chief of general staff said in a statement to Shalit that the "commanders and soldiers of the IDF respect you and are proud of your tenacity and resilience throughout these years. We will continue to support you for as long as you need.
"On behalf of your fellow soldiers, who carry on their shoulders your generation's guardianship of the country, whether in the land, sea or air, in their offices or in the field, throughout the country, whether in their tanks, or artillery batteries, in their planes or in their ships -- in the name of the whole of the IDF, I congratulate you and your family upon your return to us."


Israel freed 477 Palestinian inmates from Israeli jails shortly before Shalit was released, the first batch of Palestinians being swapped for Shalit's freedom.
Enormous crowds of Palestinians estimated in the tens of thousands flooded the streets of Gaza, waving flags and banners, to welcome the inmates home. Greeted by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, prisoners went on a stage before a jubilant throng. Most of the crowd waved Hamas banners but some hoisted the flag of Fatah.


In celebration of the freed detainees, Palestinian leaders have declared Wednesday a holiday for all government institutions, including schools, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television reported.
Haniya wept tears of joy as he hugged and kissed those who crossed into Gaza.
Speaking for Palestinians everywhere, Haniya said, "this is the day of our God. It's our God that's given us this victory. He has made us this miracle and this pride on this proud people. It's God who has preserved our resistance fighters. It's God who set in his book that our our soldiers are the victorious."


Haniya said Shalit was tightly guarded throughout the duration, adding that "for the purpose of liberating these heroes, we put our divisions behind our backs."
"We have entered into a unity for the sake of these heroes from different factions," he said, noting that people in non-Hamas factions, like Fatah and Islamic Jihad, also were freed.
"Some people described what Hamas did as an adventure that does not merit what Gaza went through. But I tell you now these heroes deserve any adventure, risk-taking to bring them back."
Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, speaking in Cairo, said the "victory is a result of the negotiation that was led by Hamas."
"The ability to hide Gilad Shalit in Gaza for five years is something to be proud of. The Palestinian security mind has defeated the Israeli security mind, which is supported by all the rest of the world," Meshaal said.


Meshaal said more prisoners could have been "liberated" with more time.
"We would have kept on negotiating. But we have realized this is the ceiling we can get to."
After five very difficult years, Ahmed Qawasmi, 80, was awaiting the release of his son Amer, who was arrested when he was 17 and has been in jail 24 years.
"I am very, very happy for the release of my son Amer," he said, adding: "The celebrations and happiness won't be complete until all Palestinian prisoners are free from Israeli prisons."
Nabil Hamouz, 21, told CNN he was waiting for the release of his mother Hanan, 42, who has served one year of a 2 1/2-year sentence for trying to stab an Israeli soldier.


"I am very happy and can't wait to hug my mother again," he said, weeping.
Freed prisoners praised Egypt's role as a mediator in interviews on Palestinian television after they were released.
Some are being sent to the West Bank and others to Gaza, while just under half are being sent abroad. A handful are going to homes in Jerusalem, elsewhere in Israel or to Jordan.
Opinion: With Gilad Shalit's return, a sign of hope
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas greeted some of them with hugs at his compound in the West Bank.

Abbas told cheering crowds they had "fought and sacrificed, and you will see the results of your struggle in an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
And he said more prisoners will be released.
"I am not revealing a secret here. I do not reveal a secret. If I say that there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government to release more prisoners, the same number of prisoners released on this deal, once this current deal is over and therefore, we demand from them to honor their pledge if making pledges is a responsible act on their end," Abbas said.
Hamas official Hassan Youssef welcomed the release of some prisoners, but said it was not enough.


"We are all shedding two tears: One tear for the release of all of our fighters, and a tear of pain for all of our brothers still in prison," he said.
Netanyahu used strikingly similar language to describe his nation's emotions at the release of Shalit in exchange for convicted attackers of Israelis.
"Today we are all united in joy and in pain. ... This is also a hard day; even if the price had been smaller, it would still have been heavy," he said.

Shalit: Israeli captive set for freedom

Gilad Shalit was a 19-year-old enlisted man guarding an Israeli army post when Palestinian militants attacked his tank, killed the two men he was serving with and took him prisoner.

Since then, he has become Israel's cause célèbre. Israelis are overjoyed at the news that their country has inked a deal to get him back this week in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

"He really is the child of us all," said Daniel Taub, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, noting that almost all Israelis do military service.

Much of Israel came to a halt nearly five years after his capture in response to a Facebook campaign that went viral in the small Middle Eastern nation.

On March 15, cars pulled to the side of the road, schools halted classes and Israeli President Shimon Peres paused at a conference in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

Israelis were not the only ones marking the soldier's captivity.

"Jews across the world have been pining for Gilad Shalit's release for over five years," said William Daroff, a vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America.
"Thousands of us have had an empty chair at our Passover seder tables reserved for Gilad," he said, referring to the celebratory meal that marks the beginning of Passover. "We have prayed for his release. We have met with his parents, we have sat with his family in their tent outside the prime minister's residence, we have marched for Gilad's release."

Shalit's parents led a 12-day march from their home in northern Israel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem in June 2010 and camped out in a tent there until last week.

Soon after the protest camp was set up, the British government demanded Shalit's "immediate and unconditional release."

"His detention is unjustifiable and unacceptable," the British Foreign Office said on Shalit's 24th birthday.

Other nations have also called for Shalit's release. In June, the United States condemned Shalit's captivity "in the strongest possible terms," according to a White House statement. America "joins other governments and organizations around the world" in calling for his immediate freedom, the statement said.

Shalit was born August 28, 1986, in the Israeli coastal city of Naharia and moved with his family to western Galilee two years later.

He has two brothers and was an outstanding science student in high school, his family says.

An Israeli military operation immediately after his capture failed to free him, and he has been held incommunicado throughout his captivity.

His family calls it a violation of international law that organizations such as the Red Cross have not been allowed to see him and that they have only been able to get one letter to him.

The last proof he was alive came in a video in 2009 in which the noticeably thin young man held a newspaper dated September 14.

In the video, he talks about his family, saying: "I miss them very much, and I am longing for the day when I will see them again."

The day after his capture, a trio of Palestinian groups, including members of Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad, said they would release him in exchange for all female Palestinian prisoners and all security prisoners under the age of 18 held by Israel, the Shalit family says.

If this week's deal goes as planned, Israel will release significantly more than the Palestinians originally demanded despite the objections of at least some Israeli families who do not want to see the killers of their relatives released.

The Israeli public overwhelmingly supports the agreement to release more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Shalit, according to a poll published in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth the day before he was expected to be released.

Israel's ambassador to London summed up the mixed feelings many are experiencing in his country as they wait for their most famous captive to taste freedom.

"Seeing Gilad coming home ... is really coming home to every family. But at the same time it's very bittersweet," Taub said, since "every one of us in some way has been touched by terrorism."

Israel releases list of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged [Video]

Israel early Sunday released the names of the first group of Palestinian prisoners to be freed in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, setting in motion a process that will allow the public to file objections to specific releases.
The list features 477 names, including those of Ahlam Tamimi, serving life terms for being an accomplice in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem restaurant, and Amneh Muna, who plotted the killing of a 16-year-old Israeli boy in 2001 and received a life sentence.


The most notable name not in the list is jailed Palestinian lawmaker Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences. He was convicted in an Israeli court on murder and other charges related to his role in planning attacks on Israelis during the second Intifada.
In exchange, the Palestinian group Hamas will release Shalit, who was captured in a June 2006 raid on an Israeli army outpost. Shalit has been held incommunicado by the group, which controls Gaza, since his seizure.


Israel approved the deal Tuesday night, agreeing to release in two stages 1,027 Palestinians prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. The first swap is expected to take place early this week, with the second stage scheduled for later this year.
Israel's Prisons Authority said the Palestinians slated for release are being taken to two facilities -- one for the 27 female prisoners on the list, the rest for the men -- from which they will be released together. Once freed, they will be under various restrictions on a case-by-case basis: Some will not be allowed to leave the country, while others will have other restrictions on their movement or be required to report their whereabouts to local police.


Shalit, meanwhile, will be transferred back into Israeli territory via the Kerem Shalom border crossing and will undergo medical tests and debriefing at an air force base, the Israeli military said. Once that is complete, he will be flown to his home at Mitzpe Hila, north of Haifa.
"The mission will be completed when Gilad Shalit returns to his family alive and well and in good health," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following a meeting with David Meidan, his special envoy on the Shalit issue, who returned from Cairo on Sunday.


A Palestinian official raised questions about the fact that only 27 women are among those being released, however.
"We believe that there were some discrepancies conducted by the people conducting the negotiations on behalf of the Palestinian female prisoners. Instead of negotiating on all 37 names of female Palestinian prisoners ... they only negotiated on 27 names especially when Khaled Meshaal (Hamas leader) said that all Palestinian female prisoners will be released," said Hassan Abed Rabo, a spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs.


"We welcome the release of any Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails regardless of their political affiliation and political backgrounds, but what worries us is the remaining thousands of Palestinian prisoners who remain inside Israeli jails under ... difficult conditions," Rabo said.
A spokesperson for Israeli President Shimon Peres said Saturday that the pardoning process formally commenced after a Justice Ministry official submitted the requisite paperwork.
Peres will allocate 48 hours to complete the procedure in order to allow public objections and petitions against the pardons.


Read the list (PDF)
The president is expected to voice his discomfort with the release of convicted murderers, but is unlikely to reject any of the pardon requests, spokeswoman Ayelet Frish told CNN. Any changes to the list negotiated with Hamas could potentially endanger the entire deal, she said.
Shalit has been a recurring topic in the country's national dialogue. Militants captured him in June 2006 after tunneling into the Jewish state and attacking an Israeli army outpost. Israel immediately launched a military incursion into Gaza to rescue Shalit, then 19, but failed to free him. Since then, he has been held incommunicado by Hamas.
Shalit's family has continuously petitioned Israeli government officials to broker a deal that would secure his release.


"Everyone wants to see Gilad Shalit safe and well and back home but I think there is a real failure to understand the price that is being paid, and the price is phenomenal," said Arnold Roth, who lost his daughter Malki in the Jerusalem suicide bombing in 2001. "We are releasing people who have dedicated their lives to killing Jews and Israelis."
Roth opposes the announced release of Tamimi, who was sentenced to multiple life sentences for her involvement in the August 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizza restaurant in 2001, in which 16 people were killed.


Israeli radio reported Saturday that 182 files for pardons were submitted to the president for prisoners convicted in Israeli criminal courts. Remaining pardon requests will be handled by the Israeli Defense Forces officials.
On Friday, the terror victims association Almagor petitioned the Supreme Court to suspend the release until the deal is thoroughly examined.
More petitions against the deal are expected to be submitted Sunday by families of victims directly affected by the prisoners on the list.


The Ministry of Justice announced it will operate an information center "where information regarding prisoners on the list can be obtained."
Of the male prisoners on the list, 275 will return to their homes in Gaza. Most of the rest will be sent to the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Five prisoners who are Israeli citizens can return to their homes, and 39 are to be sent abroad.


Video:

Source:cnn