Gaza City: Gaza's ruling Hamas movement announced on Wednesday it would give USD 2,000 to each prisoner released by Israel to the coastal territory under a landmark prisoner exchange deal.
"It has been decided that to honour the freed prisoners each of them will be given 2,000 US dollars," said a statement from the office of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas government in Gaza.
Yesterday, Israel freed 477 prisoners in the first stage of a deal to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who spent more than five years as a captive in the Gaza Strip.
Under the deal, a total of 1,027 prisoners will be
released -- some to their homes in Israel, east Jerusalem, the
West Bank and Gaza, and others exiled to either the Gaza Strip
or overseas to Syria, Qatar and Turkey.
Shalit returned home to his family on yesterday afternoon,
and Israel is set to release a second group of 550 Palestinian
prisoners within two months.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 21:41