Prison Service preparing release of Palestinian prisoners

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Prison Service preparing release of Palestinian prisoners

Aharonovich holds planning session with senior officials; 450 Palestinians, Israeli Arabs to be released in first stage of Schalit deal.

The Prison Service Wednesday morning began preparing for the release of security prisoners as part of a prisoner exchange deal for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit that will see 1,027 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.

Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovich met with police Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino and senior officials from Israel Prisons Service (IPS) Wednesday morning in order to update them on the prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

Instructions were given to the IPS on preparations for carrying out the deal.

"You must prepare for a range of scenarios in the prisons and outside of them," Aharonovich told the IPS during the meeting.

Among the preparations being made were plans for dealing with possible unrest among security prisoners who discover that they are not on the list of prisoners to be released.

Details of the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange deal approved by the cabinet emerged Tuesday night.

A total of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners will be released in the deal, in two stages. In the first stage, 450 prisoners will be released, 280 of whom are serving life sentences.

Of those, Israel agreed to release 96 prisoners to the West Bank and 14 to east Jerusalem. Another 203 from the West Bank will be deported to Gaza and 40 will be sent abroad. Further, 131 prisoners from Gaza will be released back to Gaza.

Of the 110 prisoners being released to the West Bank and east Jerusalem, half will have limited freedom of movement. Some will not be able to travel abroad, or leave their home cities. Only 55 of those 110 prisoners are Hamas operatives.

Six Israeli Arabs will be released to their homes and 27 female prisoners will be released as a part of the deal.

Schalit will then be sent to Israel, and another 550 prisoners – including women and minors – will be released.

Jailed terrorists Marwan Barghouti, Abdullah Barghouti, Ibrahim Hamed and Ahmed Sa'adat will not be released as part of the deal.

A full list of the prisoners set to be released in the deal will be released to the public 48 hours before the exchange takes place.

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