The Jewish Agency started a campaign ahead of captured soldier Gilad Shalit’s third birthday as a Hamas hostage somewhere in southern Gaza. The Jewish Agency demands that the International Red Cross be given access to Shalit, in accordance with international humanitarian law. According to the Geneva Convention (1949), every prisoner of war is entitled to be visited by representatives of the International Red Cross (IRC).

The Agency noted that since his capture, Shalit’s parents have only received three handwritten letters from him. Sympathizers with Shalit’s plight are asked to show their support by electronically sending a letter to Gail McGovern, the American Red Cross president and CEO by surfing to the Jewish Agency’s site and filling in a form letter, which states: “We are writing to express solidarity with Gilad Shalit, the abducted Israeli soldier held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under the Geneva Convention, every prisoner of war is entitled to be visited by representatives of the International Red Cross. We call on the Red Cross to exert pressure on the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip to grant Gilad Shalit the rights due him under international law.”

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