An elder of the Gaza-based Doghmush clan, which is presumed to be close to the Arab captors of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, said that the hostage is “living in a paradise.” In addition to getting plenty of fresh air, said Abu Khatab Doghmush, Shalit is treated to annual cakes, candles and music on his birthday.
Shalit recently spent his third birthday still in captivity.
Despite a Sunday Times reporter’s journey into Gaza to find more information on the whereabouts and welfare of Cpl. Shalit, Israelis are not much closer to the truth about the young Jewish soldier's health and location than they were in the days after his capture.
The Doghmush clan is a group of families that is notorious throughout Gaza for their suspected ties to the local criminal underworld. It is also widely believed that the Army of Islam, a previously unknown group that took joint responsibility for Gilad’s abduction, with Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees (P.R.C.), is the private army of the Doghmush families. As an elder of the clan, Abu Khatab Doghmush was sought out for information. Gilad Shalit’s family desperately wants to know: Is he really alive? Does he need medical attention? Who is responsible for his capture and his captivity?
“I can tell you that Shalit is living in a paradise,” boasted the 51-year-old Doghmush. The elder claims that it is the Al-Qassam Brigades that are holding Shalit hostage rather than the Army of Islam. “Our religion of Islam demands that we look after prisoners even more than we do our own people,” added Doghmush. He added that Shalit even “can go out and take fresh air.” Doghmush denied that Shalit is in need of hospitalization.
“If we do not see some results soon, we will be forced to close the file.” 
In this week’s edition of the Sunday Times, the clan elder was reported to have said that the soldier is “not being kept in a closed room all the time – this would not be healthy.” In fact, said Doghmush, “Every year a party is held to celebrate his birthday. Yes, there is a cake and candles, music, everything.”
Despite assurances that Shalit is alive and well-treated from “everyone I meet,” the reporter said that in meetings with terrorist leaders from Al-Qassam and Hamas, both groups denied knowledge of Shalit’s whereabouts. With each terror group directing his queries to the other group, the reporter admitted to being frustrated by a “circle of professed ignorance and denial.”
Meanwhile, Gilad Shalit’s family is frustrated by what they say is the Israeli government’s refusal to give them information on their loved one.
“The army is not keeping us informed about what is going on,” said Gilad’s father Noam. “The person handling all the negotiations is a former secret-service officer who doesn’t believe he has to give us any information.”
Meanwhile, Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the P.R.C. terror group that coordinated Shalit’s abduction, warned that unless Israel acts soon to release Gazan terrorists, his employers may give up on keeping Shalit as a live prisoner.
“If we do not see some results soon, we will be forced to close the file.”