Noam Shalit called a news conference on Tuesday in eastern Jerusalem in an effort to persuade his son’s kidnappers and Palestinian Authority leaders to let him go. The majority of those invited were journalists from Arab media in the Palestinian Authority and top Arabic-language news networks throughout the Islamic world.
Shalit told the reporters that he had researched Islamic law on the treatment of captives after his son’s kidnapping by Hamas terrorists on June 25th. “What I read reassured me,” he said, adding that according to Islam, one must treat captives “in a good and equal way.”
This week’s news of an agreement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form a new coalition gave Shalit new hope that his son might soon be freed, he said. “An end to the abduction affair can ultimately help the new Palestinian government that rises as well.”
The announcement of the agreement by the heads of the two warring Fatah and Hamas factions also presented a new opportunity for PA residents as well as his son, he noted. “I suppose that the Palestinians will not want to begin a new path with a kidnapped Israeli soldier. To my thinking, that doesn’t go together.”
The lack of information about Gilad’s well-being, however, was a point he was determined to emphasize. “Treating a captive well also includes giving information to the family about his condition after 80 days of captivity,” he said.
Shalit also told the Arab media that returning his son would benefit Gaza residents in a number of ways, saying his son’s release “could also lead to the removal of the blockade and the military activity in the Gaza Strip.” He also pointed out that such a move would “allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to celebrate the month of Ramadan in peace and quiet without the military pressure and the activities that Israel has adopted.”
Gazans have not been the only ones to suffer as a result of the military activity which has continued since Shalit’s capture, however. Earlier in the day, an IDF soldier was killed during a heavy exchange of gunfire with Palestinian Authority terrorists, leaving behind ten children, two brothers and four sisters.
The soldier, a Bedouin tracker from an unrecognized Negev village, was shot in the head and critically wounded by PA forces operating from within a building near the former Kissufim Crossing in central Gaza. He was evacuated to a hospital, where he died of his wounds.
Shalit told the reporters that he had researched Islamic law on the treatment of captives after his son’s kidnapping by Hamas terrorists on June 25th. “What I read reassured me,” he said, adding that according to Islam, one must treat captives “in a good and equal way.”
This week’s news of an agreement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form a new coalition gave Shalit new hope that his son might soon be freed, he said. “An end to the abduction affair can ultimately help the new Palestinian government that rises as well.”
The announcement of the agreement by the heads of the two warring Fatah and Hamas factions also presented a new opportunity for PA residents as well as his son, he noted. “I suppose that the Palestinians will not want to begin a new path with a kidnapped Israeli soldier. To my thinking, that doesn’t go together.”
The lack of information about Gilad’s well-being, however, was a point he was determined to emphasize. “Treating a captive well also includes giving information to the family about his condition after 80 days of captivity,” he said.
Shalit also told the Arab media that returning his son would benefit Gaza residents in a number of ways, saying his son’s release “could also lead to the removal of the blockade and the military activity in the Gaza Strip.” He also pointed out that such a move would “allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to celebrate the month of Ramadan in peace and quiet without the military pressure and the activities that Israel has adopted.”
Gazans have not been the only ones to suffer as a result of the military activity which has continued since Shalit’s capture, however. Earlier in the day, an IDF soldier was killed during a heavy exchange of gunfire with Palestinian Authority terrorists, leaving behind ten children, two brothers and four sisters.
The soldier, a Bedouin tracker from an unrecognized Negev village, was shot in the head and critically wounded by PA forces operating from within a building near the former Kissufim Crossing in central Gaza. He was evacuated to a hospital, where he died of his wounds.