Oct 1, 2009, 15:16 GMT
Ramallah/Tel Aviv - In what could mark the first step of a deal to free an Israeli army sergeant held captive in the Gaza Strip for over three years, Israel made final preparations Thursady to free female Palestinian prisoners on Friday in return for a sign-of-life video cassette of the soldier.
As Israel and the family of Gilad Shalit prepared to receive the one-minute video, the International Red Cross visited Thursday afternoon the prisoners to be set free, after the detainees had all be transferred to the same prison in central Israel.
The first of the 20 prisoners to be freed was released late Wednesday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society confirmed.
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.
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 in 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 would be 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. About a year after he was seized, his captors released an audio tape, in which he pleaded with Israel to secure his release. His captors have also 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 Wednesday, 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.
Most of the prisoners to be set free are due for release in 2010 or 2011. Four, including Mulki, were slated to be freed this year, and three were being held until 'the end of proceedings.'
Their crimes range from attempted homicide to attacking soldiers to possessing weapons.
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.
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