Hamas: Egypt pledged 9 women to be freed in days

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Thursday that Egypt has assured the movement that the nine female prisoners remaining in Israeli jail will be released "in the coming days." On Tuesday, 27 women were released in the first stage of an Egypt-brokered prisoner swap freeing captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel. Barhoum told Ma'an that the agreement reached last week between Hamas and Israel included the release of all female prisoners. Egypt was working to guarantee the release of the last nine women still in jail, Barhoum said, who were not among the 477 prisoners released Tuesday as Shalit returned to his northern Israel home. In the second phase, Israel will release 550 further prisoners in two months, a process Hamas officials say has been guaranteed by Egypt. But Barhoum said that the women still in jail would be freed in days. Salah al-Aruri, the Hamas leader responsible for the prisoner exchange negotiations, had confirmed this point, Barhoum told Ma'an. After Shalit was seized by Gaza militants in 2006, Israel tightened its blockade on the Hamas-run coastal strip, and several rounds of negotiations collapsed between the sides over the identities and number of prisoners to be exchanged. According to recent estimates from the Palestinian Authority and prisoners groups, there were around 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails prior to the swap, including 36 women.