ISRAEL YESTERDAY marked the 4th anniversary of the capture of Cpl Gilad Shalit, as family members urged the government to finalise a prisoner swap deal with Hamas to bring the soldier home in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian militants jailed in Israel.
Cpl Shalit, then aged 19, was captured on June 25th, 2006, in a daring cross-border raid by gunmen from Gaza in an operation in which two other Israeli soldiers and 2 militants were killed.
He has been held in Gaza by militants during the last four years. His captors have denied Red Cross access, although they did release an audio recording and a video tape with messages from the soldier saying he was in good health and urging the Israeli government to meet Hamas demands for a prisoner exchange.
Yesterday, Israelis released thousands of yellow balloons and rallied in Tel Aviv to mark the anniversary. Tomorrow, Gilad Shalit’s parents will begin a 12-day march from their home in northern Israel to the Jerusalem residence of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a distance of 120 miles (193km). The parents intend to stay in a protest tent opposite the prime minister’s residence until their son returns home. However, prospects for their son’s prompt release do not look good.
Indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas, via a German mediator, broke off in December after the sides failed to agree on details of a prisoner exchange. Israel was reportedly willing to free some 450 militants, including dozens of senior gunmen involved in fatal attacks on Israelis.
However, the sides could not agree on how many of the hard-core detainees, classified by Israel as having “blood on their hands”, would be allowed to return to their West Bank homes, and how many would be exiled, either to Gaza or abroad.
One of the main reasons behind Israel’s economic blockade on Gaza was to exert pressure on Hamas to free Gilad Shalit. Shalit family members criticised this week’s decision by the government to ease the blockade.
Noam Shalit, father of the captured soldier, said the time has come for the government to take the “difficult and unpopular” decisions needed to bring his son home.
“I won’t be happy if terrorists and dangerous murderers are released, but after four years, the time has come to make up one’s mind, especially since the government is not proposing any other alternative,” he said.