Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal praised on Tuesday the deal to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, calling it a "luminous page in the national history of the Arab and Islamic nation of Palestine." The head of Hamas's political bureau in Damascus said in Cairo that it was a "miracle" that Hamas was able to hold on to Schalit and fend of Israeli intelligence efforts to release him for five years.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)