Shalit's father says Israel must ensure release of his son

Wednesday May 21, 2008 10:05 by Rami Almeghari - 1 of International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC Editorial Group

Father of the captured Israeli soldier, Gil'ad Shalit, Hamas and other resistance factions hold in Gaza since 2006, said yesterday that Israel must ensure the release of his son.

Captured Israeli soldier, Gil'ad Shalit

No'am Shalit, Gil'ad's father was quoted as saying " the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert has asserted to me that Israel wouldn't agree to any ceasefire deal that excludes the release of Gil'd".

No'am voiced the need that any future agreement on a truce between Israel and the Palestinians must include the release of his son, adding that he realized the need to calm in the region.

Early this week, representatives of 12 Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, involving the ruling Hamas, held in Cairo a new round of talks with Egyptian mediators over possible ceasefire with Israel.

Israeli officials, who held coincident meetings with Egyptians reiterated their demands that Shalit release must be a part of any truce deal and that arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza must stop.

Last month, the Hamas party, which holds a sway in Gaza for the past two years, agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire initiative, based on stopping homemade shells fire and halt of Israeli army attacks on Gaza as well as lifting an 11-month-old Israeli closure of Gaza's border crossings.

Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam, a group linked to Hamas, carried out a cross-border attack in southern Gaza in June2006, capturing Sahlit and killing two other soldiers. Israel responded fiercely, killing about 450 Palestinian men, women and children but failed to free the soldier.

gaza strip | miscellaneous | news report rami at imemc dot org