Major General Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Duwairi, former Deputy Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, stated that the case of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit went through three stages over approximately five and a half years. The first stage began immediately after the kidnapping and ended when Hamas overthrew the authority, lasting one year and one month, marking the start of negotiations. The second stage began after the Egyptian security delegation’s mission in Gaza ended, starting weeks after Hamas’s coup and ending in early 2011, involving the exchange of lists and was very difficult. The third stage was the phase of concluding the deal.

He added during his appearance on the program “Secret Session” hosted by journalist and media personality Samir Omar on Cairo News Channel that Egypt worked on three main foundations: the national perspective, the full partner perspective—Egypt is not a mediator but a full partner in the Palestinian cause in all its aspects, especially since the prisoners’ issue is considered a permanent situation. The third perspective was the humanitarian one, as at that time there were about 12,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including those sentenced to life imprisonment, those with long sentences, the sick, and women.

He continued that Egypt tried to leverage the Shalit case and resolve this crisis to move from a narrow issue concerning the release of a prisoner to a broader issue touching the core of the Palestinian cause, emphasizing that solving the Shalit case could lead to a more favorable climate for the political process. He added that Israel was governed at that time by Ehud Olmert, who showed a degree of flexibility in dealing with the Palestinian issue, and indeed reached what was called the Olmert understandings with President Mahmoud Abbas in mid-2008, during which all pending files and issues were opened.