Haaretz is reporting this afternoon that IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Gaza militants three years ago, will soon be “transferred” to Egypt, perhaps as early as today. It’s part of a complicated deal, “assisted by Egyptian mediation and done in coordination with the United States and with the support of Syria,” as Haaretz puts it, to open crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel, create a joint Hamas-Fatah committee to control Gaza, and exchange prisoners between the two Palestinian groups. The news is sourced to “European diplomatic sources;” Israeli officials, says Haaretz, have not confirmed it.
Jesse Oxfeld, a former executive editor and publisher of Tablet Magazine, is a freelance theater critic. He was The New York Observer’s theater critic from 2009 to 2014.