Netanyahu Blamed For Shalit Impasse

Gulfnews.com reports:

Five years after the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Popular Resistance Committee spokesman Abu Mojahed has blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his captivity.

"Netanyahu is responsible for not releasing Gilad Shalit because he does not accept our prisoner exchange conditions, " Abu Mojahed said Saturday.

The soldier, who is also a French citizen, was 19 when he was captured in southern Israel on June 25, 2006, by fighter groups including members of Hamas who staged a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip. He is being held there at a secret location.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday called on Hamas to provide proof that Shalit was alive.

In June 2007, the Israeli authorities announced the suspension of family visits to Palestinians from Gaza who were being held in Israel. According to the ICRC, in the past four years, over 700 families from Gaza have been prevented from seeing their detained relatives.

For years the previous Egyptian regime tried to reach a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel but these efforts did not succeed.