Nineteen Palestinian women prisoners were freed on Friday in a breakthrough swap for a video of soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Gaza militants since 2006.

Friends, relatives and officials cheered and wept, as prisoners were driven out of a military base on their way to a ceremony hosted by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah, the political capital of the West Bank.

The release came after military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi assessed the footage, which Israeli media said showed Shalit in good health and speaking coherently.

The women left the Israeli prison where they were being held early Friday, with 18 later freed in the West Bank and one into Gaza. A further prisoner is to be freed in coming days.

"To exchange one minute of Gilad Shalit for 20 ladies is a big victory," said Qiffah Afanah, who served nine months for assaulting a soldier.

She cried with joy as she hugged her father at the gates of the Ofer military base, where relatives, friends and officials cheered the women.

"I am very very happy, but I am sad that I left others in the prison and I hope they will be released as part of a final deal," she said.

As part of a three-stage deal, Israelis ensured the video of Shalit met the established criteria before they gave the green light for the women to be freed.

The DVD was sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Ashkenazi analysed it, officials said.

It was not immediately clear whether the brief footage would be made public.

The deal was a major breakthrough after nearly three years of on-again, off-again Egyptian-brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas. German mediators also joined the talks in July.

First video footage of Shalit

It was the first time Israel has released prisoners as part of the talks, and the first video footage of Shalit since his capture. Previously his family had received an audio recording and several letters.

France on Friday called for the soldier, who also holds French nationality, to be freed after the video showed him alive.

Cairo has been trying to broker a deal under which hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for Shalit, who has been held in Gaza since he was seized in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.

Shalit, now 23, was seized after Gaza militants, including Hamas, tunnelled out of the Palestinian territory and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers.

Netanyahu's office stressed that the latest development did not herald Shalit's imminent release, but was meant as a confidence-building measure ahead of "decisive stages in the negotiations," and warned that the talks were still expected to be "long and arduous."

All but one of the Palestinian women released are from the West Bank and none has been directly implicated in killing Israelis.

"Today is like a huge party," said Nisrin Hamdan (26) who showed up outside Ofer with her siblings, all wearing T-shirts bearing a picture of their 60-year-old mother, held for assisting a suicide bomber.

"My mother has been absent for seven years and today we will have her in our home."

Also among those awaiting their loved ones was Nawal Hossein (37) an aunt of a 22-year-old prisoner who was serving a 20-month sentence for plotting to become a suicide bomber.

"We are very happy, but our joy is not complete because there are still many Palestinians in prison," she said.

A total of 7200 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, and those freed on Friday were among 60 women prisoners. The prisons service says 320 are under 18 years old.

The freed women include members of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

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AFP

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