Just noticed that on the Israeli news, and it's on Al Jazeera too.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said that his government has reached a deal with Hamas to swap Palestinian prisoners for the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The negotiations with Hamas, initiated on Thursday, were signed earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu said in a televised address late on Tuesday...
The entire deal is supposed to be implemented within days.
From the Hebrew news site Walla, the following leaked(?) details emerge: 1000 released Palestinian prisoners for Shalit, and 200 of them will be forbidden from returning to the West Bank.
The Israeli cabinet is meeting right now to approve this, the Walla link has what appears like live video footage from outside the government offices.
Updates later (?)...
----- UPDATE 1--------
Israeli news site Ynet (Hebrew link) is reporting that Palsetinian leader Marwan Barghouti will be among those released. Barghouti, a Fatah politician, is widely seen as the most charismatic and widely-respected Palestinian leader. He has been working tirelessly from his prison cell helping achieve Fatah-Hamas unity deals.
Beside the obvious boost that Israeli PM "Bibi" will get to his sagging ratings from the deal, if indeed Barghouti is released this will inject new blood into Palestinian politics.
And - perhaps a point so obvious I missed it - a demonstration to the world that yes, Israel can in fact talk with Hamas.
Ynet also reports that the deal includes releasing all female Palestinian prisoners, and of prisoners with Israeli IDs over whom in the past Israel has denied any "jurisdiction" to Hamas in prisoner-release negotiations. Here's an English link to the Ynet story.
Walla reports that thousands are gathering in Gaza to celebrate. I haven't yet seen direct reports from Arab news sources on this.
UPDATE 2: almost simultaneously with this diary, volleyboy1 also reported the story with some additional links e.g. Al Arabiya.
UPDATE 3, 3:30 PM PDT: the Israeli media are now reporting that Barghouti is probably not in the deal. Seems like the Israeli cabinet is still debating, several hours now. The true strongman of this government, foreign minister Yvet Lieberman, is opposed.
It is hard to gauge at this point whether this is prolonged debate is just posturing on behalf of the cabinet - after all, reports say they knew of the deal's essentials in advance - or a true inability to decide. If Bibi fails to get approval, this might bring his government to a very sudden end, or at the very least completely lame-duck him. He'll probably pass it. This government has practically no real achievements to boast, hard to expect them giving up on this opportunity. But wingnut and corrupt-politician minds are very different from our own, I guess.
In any case, there will be the inevitable High Court petitions to block the deal from far-right organizations. Some wingnuts are already protesting - in front of the Shalit family tent where the family and friends are celebrating. Classy... I don't think the wingnut petitions stand a chance in court.
----- FINAL UPDATE 5:20 PDT--------
The deal is now approved by the Isareli government, voting 26 to 3. The 3 opposed are Lieberman (none of his party joined him), and Likud ministers Uzi Landau - an antiquated hard-nut, and ex-IDF chief of staff Boogy Yaalon.
No huge surprise. Yaalon is IMHO the single person most culpable for Israel-Palestine's lost decade; I despise the guy. It is a story waiting to be told some day.
Anyway, enuff with the big politics. For one night, the politicians and militants in I-P did not stand in ordinary people's way.
As Fire Bad Tree Pretty said in the comments, this is a joyous night for 1028 families, one in Israel and 1027 in Palestine. Let us join in congratulating them and sharing their celebrations.