Female Palestinian prisoner freed in Shalit proof-of-life swap

Ramallah - Israel has released the first of 20 female Palestinian prisoners as part of a mini-exchange with Hamas in return for proof-of-life of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Palestinian Prisoners Society confirmed Thursday. Braah Mulki, 15, went through the release procedures late Wednesday and returned to her family in the refugee camp of Jilasoun, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Israel also began preparations for the release of the 19 other female prisoners, by transferring them all to the same prison in central Israel, north of Tel Aviv, ahead of the exchange scheduled to take place Friday. In return for the releases, Hamas has agreed to give Israel a one- minute, recently filmed video tape of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held in Gaza since June 2006. Mulki had been serving an 11-month prison sentence for trying to stab an Israeli soldier in December 2008 at the Qalandia military checkpoint between northern Jerusalem and Ramallah. She had originally been due to be released this coming November. Only one of the 20 female prisoners is from Gaza, the remainder from the West Bank. Although the impending release of the video tape is a breakthrough in the protracted efforts to free Shalit, Israeli officials warned that receiving information on his condition did not mean that his freedom was imminent. Shalit was snatched during an early-morning cross-border raid launched from the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006. His captors are demanding that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for setting him free. Since he was taken, Shalit has been held virtually incommunicado somewhere in the Gaza Strip. His captors released an audio tape, in which he pleaded with Israel to secure his release, about a year after he was snatched, and have transferred three letters from him to his family. But apart from that there have been no signs of life. He has been denied visits from the Red Cross. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, announced the deal in Gaza Tuesday, telling reporters that four of the prisoners will be from Hamas, five from the Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas, three from Islamic Jihad, one from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,and seven without affiliation to any group. Some 47 female Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in Israel, including three minors, according to the Israeli B'tselem human rights organization. The upcoming exchange means that nearly half will be freed, and Hamas was quick to portray the deal as a significant achievement. The exchange was brokered by an anonymous German mediator, who began working on the Shalit case early this summer and whose identity has been kept strictly secret.