GAZA - Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been captive in Gaza since 2006, will go home on Tuesday as part of a prisoners swap deal reached between his captors Hamas and Israel, officials said Friday. The Israel Radio quoted Israeli army chief of staff Benny Gantz as saying that Shalit will be handed on Tuesday morning to the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) before he goes to Egypt. Gantz told the radio that Shalit will then be taken to Egypt through the Rafah crossing between Gaza Strip and Egypt and will be handed over to the Egyptian army in an Egyptian military base in northern Sinai. He said that after than, Shalit will be flown to an Israeli military base in central Israel, adding that a senior Israeli official from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head to Cairo on Friday. Gantz noted that the Israeli Prisons Administration will start on Sunday preparing the prisoners that will be freed, adding that the official list of names will be published either on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Abu Mujahid, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), one of Shalit's captors said that the measures of handing Shalit to Egypt and the release of the prisoners will start on Tuesday. "The measure will start when Israel frees 450 prisoners and all the 27 female prisoners and we see them out of jail, then Shalit will be handed over to Egypt," said Abu Mujahid. He added that the leaders of the freed prisoners will have with them cellular phones to report that they were released. He also said that the process will continue until they reach the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Hamas militants and two other armed groups, including the PRC kidnapped Shalit during a cross-borders raid on an Israeli army base southeast of the Gaza Strip in June 2006. Two Israeli soldiers and six Palestinians killed in the attack. The deal, that had been reached on Tuesday and was mediated by Egypt, where 1,027 male and female prisoners will be freed for the release of Shalit, will be implemented on Tuesday in two phases. The first phase will be implemented on Tuesday, where 450 male and 27 female prisoners will be freed as soon as Shalit is handed over to Egypt, and then after two months, the second phase will be implemented and 550 prisoners will be released.
