Gaza Belt residents plan to present Defense Minister Ehud Barak with a petition Sunday demanding that he hold out on any deal for a tahadiyeh, or "calm" with Gaza terrorists, until it includes the release of abducted IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The petition was initiated by members of Kibbutz Kfar Aza following the mortar attack that killed 48-year-old member Jimmy Kedoshim when a shell hit his house in the kibbutz on May 9. Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid near the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza in June 2006.
Some 500 residents of Israeli communities in the western Negev have signed the petition, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper Yediot Achronot. Kfar Aza resident Batya Holin was quoted in the report as saying, "We prefer to continue and suffer from the Kassam and mortar fire than accept a ceasefire agreement that does not include Gilad." Hundreds of residents from the rocket-battered city of Sderot are expected to add their signatures to the petition before it is handed over to Barak later in the day.
"We did not believe a truce will bring peace to Sderot, but if the government plans on going through with it, it should at least ensure that Shalit returns home," said Alon Davidi, chairman of the Committee for a Secure Sderot.