Hamas authorities should immediately allow Sgt. Gilad Shalit of Israel to communicate with his family and to receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, a day before the third anniversary of his captivity. Hamas's prolonged incommunicado detention of Shalit is cruel and inhumane and may amount to torture, Human Rights Watch said.
The humanitarian rights watchdog noted that Hamas authorities are obligated by the laws of war to allow Shalit to correspond with his family, but during his three years of captivity, Hamas has passed on only three letters he has written and a voice recording. Neither Shalit's family nor the ICRC have been permitted to visit him.