Video- Palestinians celebrate prisoner swap

From the early morning hours of Tuesday, Palestinians gathered at checkpoints across the occupied Palestinian territories in East Jerusalem al-Quds, Ramallah and the Gaza strip awaiting the release of loved ones from zionist israeli Jails in return for zionist israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

As the prisoners were set free, the crowd cheered and Hamas popularity soared.

Sixteen prisoners from Jerusalem Al Quds were released, two of them from Esawieh neighborhood; 56 year old Khaled Mohesein, and 32 year old Samer Esawi.

Khaled spent twenty six years in jail while Samer spent eleven. Both were serving life sentences.

The majority of Palestinians hailed the prisoner exchange deal and considered it a great victory.

In zionist israel, the majority approved the deal as well, despite attempts by some of the families of zionist israelis victims to stall it.
zionist israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in the current diplomatic circumstances, this was the best agreement which zionist israel could achieve, and that there was no guarantee that the current conditions which allowed the deal would hold in the future.

The 1st phase of the prisoner exchange between Hamas and zionist israel is now complete and the crowd here is euphoric. 477 Palestinian prisoners from various factions are released and an additional 550 await the 2nd phase which is set to take place in a few weeks time from now.