In an interview with CNN Saturday, Hamas terror chief Khaled Mashaal said that IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, being held in Gaza for over a year after he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, was “alive and well.”

Mashaal also said that Shalit was “in good health,” despite a message said to be from Shalit broadcast last June, in which the soldier said that he was ill and in need of hospitalization. In recent months, reports have said that Hamas was demanding the release of about, 1,400 terrorists in release for Shalit, but in the interview, Mashaal put the number at 350.