The International Red Cross on Thursday urged Hamas to provide proof abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is still alive.
The independent aid agency, in an unusual public appeal, said that Shalit’s family had a right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their 24-year-old son, who has been held incommunicado since captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
"Because there has been no sign of life from Mr. Shalit for almost two years, the ICRC is now demanding that Hamas prove that he is alive," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
French media reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser Isaac Molho had arrived in Cairo for talks with senior officials about Shalit, and about alleged Israeli spy Ilan Grapel.
Hamas and Israel have been holding indirect negotiations in Egypt over a prisoner exchange deal that would see Shalit’s release. Hamas has demanded that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier.
According to reports in the Arab world, there has been a renewed attempt at advancing negotiations in hope to secure a deal which would free Shalit. Israeli sources have abstained from estimating the chances of such a move.
Foreign media has reported that Egypt has been recently stepping up its involvement in negotiations based on the plan German mediator Gerhard Conrad outlined in the past. Cairo seems keen to leverage its new regime’s improved relationship with Gaza’s Hamas rulers after it had helped draw up a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah
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