Noam Shalit, the father of abducted Israel soldier Gilad Shalit, met Monday night with youth who came to the Shalit home in Mitzpeh Hila from the Galilee communities of Givat Ella and Kibbutz Ge'aton to show their support for the Shalit family in the wake of Monday morning reports in Arab media that Gilad had been wounded in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

The older Shalit said that the family was still waiting for a miracle and that the just-ended Chanukah festival of miracles was the third that Gilad was not with the family. He added "The support of the youth is very important because the State's stewards listen and pay attention to what the youth have to say and ask for."

He said "We have to send a strong embrace to residents of the south in the test they are going through, like the one we went through two-and-a-half years ago in the north." Shalit added, "In the end, everyone, even the Palestinian people, will understand that this way of war is the least efficient and successful way to get things."

Gilad Shalit was abducted by Hamas and allied terrorist groups in a June 25, 2006 attack on an army base near Kerem Shalom, where Egypt, Gaza and the rest of Israel meet. The terrorists entered the base via a tunnel they had dug from inside Gaza. On Monday, the Israel Air Force bombed a Gaza tunnel that was designed to reach pre-1967 Israel with an eye toward carrying out a similar terrorist attack. The Israeli strike is believed to have killed terrorists inside the tunnel.

Israel's destruction of a similar "attack tunnel" in November was used by Gaza terrorists as a pretext for launching mortar and rocket attacks in violation of the calm entered into by Hamas and Israel on June 19th, which officially came to an end on December 19th, amid another upswing in terrorist attacks.

A national youth rally for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, scheduled for this coming Sunday at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, was cancelled Monday because of the latest developments around Gaza, where he is believed to be held by Hamas.

Organizers expressed hope that Israel's counterterrorist operation will advance Shalit's release. They added that if his release is not one of the conditions for an arrangement with Hamas after the campaign, they will mobilize the nation's youth for a demonstration on behalf of Shalit's freedom.