The Israeli Prime Minister has written to the families of victims of terror as a group launched an appeal with Jerusalem's High Court of Justice to cancel the planned prisoner swap.
Benjamin Netanyahu, whose older brother was killed during the raid on Entebbe in 1976, said he understood and knew the pain of bereaved families.
He said that the decision to bring home captured soldier Gilad Shalit at the price of releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners early was "among the most difficult" that he had ever made.
"I know that you have a heavy heart and that your wounds have been opened anew these past days; that your thoughts are not at ease," he said.
