Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas on Tuesday for the failure to reach an agreement over the return of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces solider Gilad Shalit.
Speaking in response to a demonstration held on Shalit’s behalf earlier in the day, Netanyahu said the government is "working all the time" to bring about an end to Shalit’s captivity in Gaza.
The difficulty lies in an agreement where Hamas insists on "the freeing of a hundred terrorists to Judea and Samaria," the prime minister said, referring to the West Bank.
Earlier, Israelis across the country took to the streets for five minutes to remember Shalit. According to the police hundreds of thousands of people participated in the peaceful protest.
Shalit was seized in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants in June 2006. He has been held by Hamas in Gaza since then, and negotiations aimed at securing his return have to date been unsuccessful.
Organizers of the five-minute protest called on drivers to pull over to the side of the road, workers to leave their offices and stand by the roadside and people in coffeehouses to go outside and do the same.
Hundreds of civilians blocked main roads leading into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the five-minute protest in what Noam Shalit called "a civilian initiative which was not organized by us."
Knesset members also halted their work for five minutes, after last week Knesset Speaker Reeuven Rivlin instructed the Knesset to participate.
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