Israel and Hamas agree on Shalit swap

Israel and Hamas have signed a prisoner-exchange deal that will secure the release of an Israeli soldierheld in Gaza for more than five years"in the coming days,"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Netanyahu told reporters late Tuesdayhe informed Gilad Shalit's parents, Aviva and Noam Shalit, earlier Tuesday of the deal to swap Shalit, 25,whowas taken by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants in June 2006 near the border with Gaza. Two Israeli soldiers were also killedin the raid.

The Israeli government approved the deal early Wednesday after a three-hour debate.

"There is built-in tension between the desire to return a kidnapped soldier ... and the need to preserve the security of the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu said, in comments at the opening of the cabinet meeting. "I believe we reached the best deal that we can reach at this time, a stormy time in the Middle East."

One cabinet minister who voted against the deal, Uzi Landau,saidit provides "incentive to kill Israelis and to carry out further abductions."

Thedeal,signed Tuesdayafter talks through Egyptian and German mediators, will likelyfreehundreds of Palestinian prisoners currently in Israeli custody and still requires approval bythe Israeli cabinet, Israeli media reported.

"I do not know if the near future would have allowed us to achieve a better deal, or a deal at all, since it is very likely that this window of opportunity created in these circumstances would have finally closed, and we wouldn't have freed Gilad at all,"Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Netanyahu as saying Tuesday.

Speaking in the Syrian capital, Damascus,Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal confirmed the deal, which he said would see 450 Palestinian prisoners released within a week, and another 550 in a second phase two months later.

Mashaal called the prisoner swap a "national achievement" for the whole Palestinian people and saidall 27 Palestinian women in Israeli prisons would be among those released.

There are unconfirmed reports that Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who is currently servingfive life sentences in connection with the deaths of Israelis, is among the names of prisoners to be released.

Since his capture, his family has ledmassive protests pressuring the Israeli government to agree to a prisoner swap and publiclychastized successive administrations for an apparent unwillingness to seal a deal.

Israel, whichrequires its citizensto complete a period ofmandatory military service, has traditionally placed a high value onsecuring the release ofits soldiers, oftenreleasing hundreds of enemyprisoners in exchange for the return ofIsraeli servicemen and women captured or killed in conflicts.

But the Israeli governmenthas balked at previousattempts toexchangeShalitforPalestinian prisoners whohave been convicted of involvement in deadly attacks on Israelis.

Shalit,a 19-year-oldcorporal in the Israeli army at the time of his capture who has since been promoted to staff sergeant, has since beenseenand heardin audio and video messages released by Hamas. But the militant group, which controls the Gaza Strip, has prevented the Red Cross from visiting the soldier, despitecalling Shalit a prisoner of war.