Last update - 00:00 12/09/2006
Gilad Shalit's father urges PA to secure his son's release
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Noam Shalit, the father of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, appealed Tuesday to his son's abductors, asking that they free his son ahead of the upcoming holiday season.
"Concern for my son led me to research Islamic texts regarding prisoners," Shalit said at a press conference with the Arab media in East Jerusalem. He said he understood that Islam is a religion that treats captives well.
"Good treatment of captives also includes the transfer of information to his or her family regarding their well-being after 80 days in captivity," Shalit said.
He noted that in recent days, he had received no official report from Israeli officials on a breakthrough in talks, but said that officials had denied reports that negotiations on freeing his son had reached a dead end.
Shalit expressed the hope Monday that the formation of a new Palestinian government would create a new impetus for Gilad's release.
"I hope that the establishment of the unity government will indeed aid efforts to free Gilad," he said. "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." He also said that "an end to the abduction affair can ultimately help the Palestinian government that arises as well."
Shalit said he was calling the press conference because he wanted to send his message directly to the PA leadership and the kidnappers.
Most of the journalists who were invited to the press conference are representatives of the Arab media, including the Palestinian press and leading satellite stations in the Arab world.
Hezbollah: No UN moves on prisoner swap
Meanwhile, Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem said Tuesday that a United Nations envoy appointed to assist in the release of two IDF soldiers seized by the group has yet to make contact.
Kassem told Reuters that negotiations for the release of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, whom Hezbollah wants to swap for Lebanese in Israeli jails, had yet to be launched almost a month after the end of a 34-day war sparked by their abduction in a July 12 cross-border raid.
"We heard through the media that the UN secretary-general appointed a person for the prisoner negotiations but nothing has begun yet in practice," he said. "Matters are still at the start and this operation has yet to be launched in practice."
The United Nations said on Sunday it had appointed a "facilitator" who had begun work to secure the releases. It has said it will end its role if any other mediator gets involved.
The preamble of Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war on August 14, calls for the unconditional release of the soldiers and "encourages" settling the Lebanese prisoner issue.
Hezbollah has said it would only free Goldwasser and Regev as part of a prisoner swap brokered by a third party.
Germany mediated previous negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, which culminated in the exchange in 2004 of kidnapped Israeli businessmen Elhanan Tennenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers for hundreds of Lebanese and other Arab detainees in Israel. Those talks took almost three years to reach fruition.