The Palestinian Hamas faction will give $2,000 to each former detainee who arrived in the Gaza Strip after being released by Israel in a prisoner swap.
The office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced the grant for each prisoner Wednesday. Some of the former prisoners also were treated to a stay at a luxury Gaza beach front hotel after spending years in Israeli detention.
Israel sent 294 prisoners to Gaza Tuesday via Egypt as part of a deal to free an Israeli soldier. Israel also released about 100 prisoners to the West Bank and sent more than 40 others to Egypt for deportation to several nations in the region.
Israeli authorities freed several other Palestinian and Israeli Arab detainees into Israeli territory. Most of the 477 prisoners freed on Tuesday were serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
In the northern Israeli town of Mitzpeh Hila Wednesday, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit took a stroll with family members, a day after Hamas released him from more than five years of captivity in Gaza. Palestinian militants seized him in a deadly cross border raid into southern Israel in 2006.
Shalit's father Noam said Tuesday the thin and pale soldier, now aged 25, needs treatment for shrapnel injuries that were not treated while in custody and will undergo a period of rehabilitation.
Of the Palestinians deported late Tuesday and early Wednesday, 16 were sent to Syria, 15 to Qatar, 11 to Turkey and one to Jordan. Israel demanded the deportations because it deemed the prisoners too dangerous to be released to Gaza or the West Bank.
Under the deal, Israel is required to release another 550 Palestinian detainees in the next two months.
Also on Wednesday, an Egyptian reporter who interviewed Shalit minutes after his release defended her questioning.
Egyptian reporter Shahira Amin asked him why he only made one video appearance during his captivity. Israeli media criticized the interview as insensitive.
Amin said Wednesday Shalit consented to the interview and she stopped her questioning several times because she could see the soldier was uncomfortable.
