Post date: Oct 18, 2011 10:37:56 AM
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released after five years as a hostage in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
EGYPT-ISRAEL BORDER (OCTOBER 18, 2011) EGYPT TV - Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held in captivity by the Islamist group Hamas since June 2006, was handed over to Israeli officials on Tuesday (October 18), according to footage broadcast by Egypt TV. Shalit was shown seated in a tent and then being escorted by military personnel to an armoured vehicle, which he enters.
Simultaneously, Israel was due to free 477 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday, with witnesses seeing a first batch arriving in Gaza. A further 550 Palestinians are set for release later this year. Shalit, 25, was taken across the frontier from the Gaza Strip into Egypt's Sinai peninsula and driven to Israel's Vineyard of Peace border crossing, where a helicopter waited to fly him to an Israeli air base for a reunion with his parents.