MIDDLE EAST / FILE: Father of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit 'not excited' by ICRC demand of Hamas to prove captive Israeli soldier is alive

Record ID: 721272

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST / FILE: Father of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit 'not excited' by ICRC demand of Hamas to prove captive Israeli soldier is alive
  • Date: 24th June 2011
  • Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (JUNE 23, 2011) (REUTERS) WIDE OF HAMAS OFFICIAL SAMI ABU ZUHRI IN OFFICE CLOSE OF ABU ZUHRI WITH CELLPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS OFFICIAL SAMI ABU ZUHRI SAYING: "The Red Cross should not get involved in Israeli security games aimed at reaching Shalit. It should take a stand that results in ending the suffering of Palestinian prisoners and help to release them." WIDE OF MURAL IN A GAZA STREET, SHOWING SHALIT MAN WALKING NEAR MURAL MURAL SHOWING SHALIT WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED IN 2006 AND HOW HE WOULD LOOK LIKE IN 2036 (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GAZA RESIDENT OTHMAN MOHAMMED SAYING: "As long as there are Palestinian prisoners - women, elders and children - we still demand all the Arab countries and the peacemakers to accept the demands of our brothers who have kidnapped Shalit." MORE OF MURAL CHILDREN WALKING BY MURAL
  • Embargoed: 9th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD16F8XOGN8I3SLCWXPPI9QSWC
  • Story Text: Almost five years after the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas militants, his parents want to see him back home.
    Even a fresh call made by the International Red Cross, demanding Hamas to provide a proof that Gilad is still alive, could not raise hopes in the hearts of Aviva and Noam -- Gilad's parents who have been living in a tent outside Israeli Prime Minister's residence for the past year.
    In an unusual public appeal, the ICRC said Shalit's family had a right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their 24-year-old son, held incommunicado since his capture on June 25, 2006.
    But for Gilad's father Noam, statements do not stop the count of days for his son's absence, marked in big black letters on top of the family's tent in Jerusalem. On Saturday, the number will read 1825, marking the fifth anniversary of his capture.
    "I'm not excited by the ICRC statement. I will be excited if they will be able to get an access to my son Gilad," Noam Shalit told Reuters.
    Referring to the anniversary, Shalit's mother Aviva told Reuters that she only wants her son home.
    "For us it's just another day. It's a difficult day. It's a round number but it's another day that Gilad is in captive and it's just like yesterday and the day before yesterday," Aviva Shalit said.
    "Each day that goes by, when Gilad's return is being held back, is a death sentence," she added at the street corner camp the family have called home, in a public campaign to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to prisoner swap with the militant Islamist group Hamas, which now controls the Gaza Strip.
    Shalit, snatched by militants who tunnelled into an Israeli army border position on June 25, 2006 and took him into the Gaza Strip, has become a powerful symbol for Israelis, many of whom do compulsory military service and identify with his plight.
    "It's very hard, as a mother and as Israeli, I think it's too much. Her son must come home. There is no other way, he must come home," said Sharon, an Israeli woman who came to support the Shalits in the family's tent.
    The first and last sign of life was a videotape released by his captors in September 2009 showing Shalit, pale and thin, pleading for his life. For the sign of life Israel released scores of Palestinian women prisoners.
    In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman appeared to dismiss the ICRC appeal -- which senior officials said had been transmitted privately to the militant Islamist group several weeks ago.
    "The Red Cross should not get involved in Israeli security games aimed at reaching Shalit. It should take a stand that results in ending the suffering of Palestinian prisoners," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters in Gaza.
    The ICRC stands ready to facilitate an exchange of prisoners if Israel and Hamas come to an agreement in their ongoing negotiations, an official of the aid group said.
    Netanyahu has said he is committed to seeking Shalit's release. But his rightist government balks at meeting Hamas' demands to free hundreds of prisoners, among them men convicted of lethal attacks, calling it too great a security risk.
    But many in Israel and in the Palestinian territories predict that release of such prisoners is inevitable if Shalit is to be freed.
    "As long as there are Palestinian prisoners - women, elders and children - we still demand all the Arab countries and the peacemakers to accept the demands of our brothers who have kidnapped Shalit," said Othman Mohammed, a resident of Gaza City.
    Shalit is not considered a prisoner of war, as he was seized by an armed group rather than by forces of a state that has ratified the Third Geneva Convention. However, like all other detainees captured in conflict, he is entitled to humane treatment under the Geneva Conventions, according to the ICRC.
    In a separate statement issued on Thursday, the ICRC also urged Israel to allow relatives of Palestinian detainees from Gaza to visit them in custody in Israel.
    The Jewish state suspended visits in June 2007 in a move which the ICRC said contravened international humanitarian law and had prevented more than 700 families from seeing their detained relatives over the past four years.
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