The Wire

After five years imprisonment by the militant group Hamas, captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released today along with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a rare prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Palestine.

The release of Gilad Shalit overjoyed the Israeli community who have welcomed him home with open arms and who have made him into a hero. However Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and co-founder of Independent Australian, Jewish Voices looks at the issue from the other side and what the released Palestinian prisoners have had to endure.