Carter, visiting Gaza today, bearing letter for Gilad Shalit

Noam Shalit, the father of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, hopes former U.S. president Jimmy Carter will be able to transmit a letter to his son and get confirmation the letter was delivered as early as next week.

"Carter didn't promise me anything. I hope he is able to ensure the letter makes its way to Gilad," Shalit told Haaretz over the weekend, after meeting the former president.

Shalit said Carter, who is scheduled to visit the Gaza Strip today, didn't tell him anything new and had no credible information regarding Gilad's health, even though Carter had met with the head of the Hamas political wing in Damascus, Khaled Meshal.

The Shalit family has not received a letter or sign of life from their son in about a year. Their hope, as well as of that of the leadership of the campaign to free Gilad is the Carter will succeed in delivering the letter to Gilad, and that his captors will allow Gilad to be able to reply, in recognition of the upcoming third anniversary, on June 25, of his capture.

Today 350 students from Gilad's high school Manor-Cabri will visit Aviva Shalit, in Mitzpeh Hila.

Students from the school have held a variety of activities in the three years since his abduction.