Egyptians gathered at the Israeli border for prisoners exchange against an accused spy, Ilan Grapel

Egyptians gathered at the Israeli border for prisoners exchange against an accused spy, Ilan Grapel

Israel has agreed to exchange 25 captured Egyptians against an American-Israeli spy Ilan Grapel. The accused Israeli spy was hunt down in June at Egypt.

Grapel planned to hire locals to keep a close eye on the events that triggered the turnover of Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian leader has played a strong ally role to American and Israel. He ruled the country for three decades.

A rebellious uprising against the dictator charged a wave of revolution which ended in collapse of Mubarak’s reign.

Mohamed el-Swarky said, "We just want to see our brother. It is a good thing from Egypt to work on freeing them.”

Swarky’s 18-year old brother Ashraf Abdallah, is also one of the 25 prisoners that are to be released during the exchange agreement.

The U.S. authorities talked out an agreement of exchange of prisoners. The deal got a positive feedback since the Hamas Islamists swapped 447 captured Palestinians against an Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The complete deal is to free over a 1000 Palestinians,
which held its first part of agreement.

The U.S. negotiated an agreement with Egypt to get back its spy plotted in Egypt.

Grapel will take a flight from Cairo to Tel Aviv. On the other side Egyptian will be passed from the border at Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba.

The 18-year old, Abdallah was prosecuted over illegally crossing the border. He was sentenced for three years in captivity. Abdallah’s family stated that he lost his way that led him across the border.

Most of the prisoners are from Sinai, who are said to be captured during smuggling movements along the Egyptian border laid with Israel.

Smuggling is said to be wide spread along these areas and the region connected to Gaza Strip.

An official from Israel Prison Service has revealed that Abdallah was captured in charges of drug trafficking across the border. Others prisoners were captured under same violations and as well as gun-running, at the border area.

Youssef al-Atrash said, "Our happiness isn’t complete. We want our third brother. They went (across) because of the hard conditions.”

Atrash’s three brothers are captured in Israel and only two are being released, included in the agreement, while third stays behind.

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Posted by Samer Ahmed on Oct 27 2011. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry