2009 Video Deal: 20 Palestinian Women Prisoners Freed for the Gilad Shalit Tape

At the start of October 2009 Israel freed 20 Palestinian women prisoners from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in return for a two-minute video and recent photos of the soldier Gilad Shalit, held by the resistance in Gaza, in what became known as the “video deal”. ^[1][2]

Contents

1. The deal at a glance
2. Details of the deal
3. Between the accounts
4. Timeline
5. Frequently asked questions about the 2009 video deal

The deal at a glance

^[1][2]

Details of the deal

According to WAFA Israel freed 20 Palestinian women prisoners and in return received information on the condition of the soldier Shalit, including a two-minute video and recent photos showing him in good health. Al Jazeera Net says the tape “proves he is alive”, in which Shalit spoke of his dream of freedom. WAFA considered the deal part of the negotiations to complete the big deal. ^[1][2]

Between the accounts

What the sources agree on: Israel freed 20 women prisoners in October 2009 in return for a video of Shalit.^[1][2]

Where they differ or what we did not find: (1) the exact day: WAFA gives 1/10/2009 while Al Jazeera Net gives only the month; (2) the date of Shalit’s capture in WAFA: 25 June 2006 in one place and 26 June 2006 in another on the same page, and we did not adopt either; (3) the names of the women and the mediators: we found them in neither source.^[1][2]

We excluded: anything reported by Israeli sources, and any detail for which we found no Arabic source.

Timeline

Frequently asked questions about the 2009 video deal

How many women were freed in the video deal?

20 women prisoners from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. ^[1][2]

What was given in return?

A two-minute video and recent photos of the soldier Gilad Shalit. ^[1]

Sources and references

1. WAFA (Palestinian National Information Center), “Prisoner exchange operations” (in Arabic).
2. Al Jazeera Net, “Gilad Shalit: the deal of a thousand prisoners”, 12 October 2011 (in Arabic).