Shalits tell Netanyahu: We see no light at the end of the tunnel

The parents of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem office for updates on the negotiations to seal a deal for their son's release.

Noam Shalit, the soldier's father, expressed to the prime minister the family's discomfort at having to spend yet another holiday period without their son. This is the fourth Jewish New Year that the Shalit family will celebrate without Gilad.

"Despite the time that has passed, we see no light at the end of the tunnel," Noam Shalit said at the end of the meeting.

Shalit told reporters that Netanyahu had pledged his commitment during their talks to seeing their son released.

A few months ago, Noam Shalit gave Netanyahu a deadline within which to sign a prisoner swap deal with Hamas, the Palestinian group that has held their son in captivity since a 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

Shalit told Haaretz on Monday that every day that passed was an eternity for his son, and that the matter must be brought to an end soon.

The meeting at the Prime Minister's Jerusalem bureau on Tuesday was scheduled at Noam Shalit's initiative, said the director of the Gilad Shalit campaign. It came amid a swirl of media reports surrounding apparent progress in the prisoner swap deal.

The prime minister met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Sunday, a meeting which analysts speculated would focus on the prisoner swap.

Last weekend, other media sources said that Hamas leader Khaled Meshal was making a rare visit to Cairo to sign off on a deal.

There has so far, however, been no confirmation of solid progress.

Also on Monday, Israeli activists set off on a journey through Israel to the Gaza border with a Rosh Hashanah gift package that they intend to deliver to Shalit.

The activists left the Shalit family home in Mitzpe Hila with a package containing a letter from his family, along with letters and drawings from Israeli children and food and wine celebrating the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

The package will pass through several Israeli towns with the goal of arriving on Thursday at the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Activists hope the package will be passed to Hamas who will then deliver it to Gilad Shalit. Advertisement

Moshe Salik, who came up with the idea of the package, said that they "will do all that we can to ensure that the package reaches Shalit."

The activists plan on receiving around 100 gift packages from families of Hamas prisoners in Israel, which they will deliver once they know that their package has reached Shalit.

"The only thing we have is hope. I'm waiting for a sign of life from him and for his release," said Shalit's mother Aviva.