Olmert tells Shalit family: I won't give up fight for Gilad's release

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to continue negotiations over a deal to release Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity as long as he remains premier, the abducted soldier's father said on Tuesday.

Olmert met with Shalit's parents, Noam and Aviva, on Tuesday evening to update them on the status of two days of intensive negotiations held over the weekend in Cairo and to explain to them why the talks had reached a deadlock.

The briefing came following a special cabinet session, in which ministers decided to publicize the list of prisoners Hamas has demanded be freed in the deal.

Shalit said that during the briefing Olmert assure him that he would not give up on the negotiations, despite the recent dailure to reach a deal.

Earlier Tuesday, the abducted soldier's father told Haaretz that he did not believe Olmert's government would manage to secure the release of his son.

"I assume that the negotiations will continue... This government will not manage to bring Gilad back. The prime minister has apparently failed in his position on this matter," Shalit told Haaretz.

He made the comments in a protest tent his family pitched last week opposite the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem to protest the government's failure to close a deal for the abducted soldier's release.

Officials close to the talks said Olmert was not expected to instruct negotiators to resume their efforts to reach a deal with Hamas militants in Gaza who took Shalit captive in a 2006 cross-border raid. Instead, he was expected to turn the matter over to incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because the Cabinet meeting had not concluded.

Noam Shalit also sent an impassioned letter to Olmert on Tuesday, imploring the premier to close a deal for his son's release.

"I turn to you with a heart-rending cry from my family, which is waiting for its son, who is jailed in Hamas' dungeons. 996 days have passed since Gilad was kidnapped, during your term as prime minister," Shalit began the letter.

"I request unambiguously and publicly from you, and despite the steep price and this required: Bring back my son before the end of your term in office. This letter of mine is a prayer to save my son, I ask you father to father - don't abandon my son Gilad."

He sent the text after indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo failed to achieve a breakthrough that would free his son in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The soldier's father added: "For almost three years rotting in dark tunnels, without his senders knowing about his condition. You bear responsibility to carry out the compact between the Israel Defense Forces and the state, to the family that sent its son with the knowledge of the [army's] commitment not to abandon a soldier in captivity."

	Noam Shalit.
	Photo by: Daniel Bar-On