According to a report published in the Wednesday edition of the Saudi-backed, London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, the Israeli soldier is being held in isolation, somewhere underground, in the Gaza region. Even those gunmen assigned to guard Shalit have no contact with the outside, except in emergency situations, the newspaper said, adding that even that contact is carried out without the use of telephones or electronic communication.
The Al-Hayat report described the location of the kidnapped soldier as completely isolated. His captors are without cellular phones and their movements are well concealed from outside eyes. Among those who have contact with Cpl. Shalit, according to the London newspaper, is a medical professional, who is treating the soldier for injuries suffered at the time of his capture.
Cpl. Shalit was taken captive on June 25th, when Hamas and Popular Resistance Committees attackers tunneled under a Gaza perimeter fence and struck an IDF military base in Kerem Shalom. Two soldiers were killed in the attack.
Sometime within eight days after his capture, a member of an Egyptian security delegation to the Palestinian Authority visited Cpl. Shalit. A PA doctor was also reported to have treated him. Other reports of observers having seen the abducted soldier turned out to be false.
According to unnamed sources quoted by Al-Hayat, the visit by the Egyptian official was an Israeli condition for opening negotiations with Hamas over Shalit's release. However, the Israeli government has repeatedly stated publicly that it would not negotiate with terrorists, saying that such a course would invite more kidnappings in the future.
In his first public appearance since the Israeli soldier was taken captive in Gaza, Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said, "Our goals and our morals command us to keep the soldier alive." He called Shalit "a prisoner of war" and said that "international conventions and laws should be applied to his case." Mashaal praised the attack that led to the capture of the IDF soldier as "a heroic operation," which united Palestinian Authority Arabs "in a way that they had not been in the past."
Mashaal also declared, "Our people are united on the insistence to swap the captured soldier with prisoners in the jails of the Zionist enemy. It's impossible to release the soldier without getting something in return. This would be humiliating for the Palestinians."