Captured Israeli soldier curiously missing from Gaza war

[DogPoundPup]

ERUSALEM (AFP) – He was the reason Israel launched its last major offensive in Gaza in June 2006. But in today's war on Hamas hardly anyone mentions the Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants for more than two years.

Corporal Gilad Shalit turned from an anonymous 18-year-old conscript into a household name in Israel after he was seized on June 25, 2006 when Hamas and other militants tunnelled out of Gaza and attacked an army post in a deadly raid.

For many months, Shalit became a cause-celebre inside the Jewish state, his pimpled baby face staring out from posters throughout the country and officials raising his plight with foreign diplomats at every opportunity.

Shalit, who also has French citizenship, is a potentially valuable prize for Hamas -- over the years Israel has released thousands of prisoners to secure the return of its soldiers, dead or alive.

Israeli officials have engaged in months of indirect negotiations with the Islamists over a prisoner exchange for him.

But since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza on December 27, hardly anyone in officialdom has mentioned his name.

"Gilad Shalit is not among the objectives that we had set for ourselves in Gaza," an army spokesman told AFP.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak -- a career soldier who has participated in some of Israel's most renowned rescue operations -- has not mentioned his name once since the start of the massive offensive.

Nor has Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had always vowed to free him.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was the first to break the unusual silence when she called for international pressure to be exerted on Hamas to allow Red Cross officials to visit the conscript.

The unusual silence has set the Israeli rumour mill whirring.

On Wednesday, a report spread like wildfire through Israeli newsrooms -- Shalit had been found by a commando unit and evacuated to a hospital in Israel.

The army went out of its way to deny anything of the sort.

But the media hurried to report that a mysterious naval commando unit was operating inside Gaza amid furious speculation that the military might be aiming to end the war with a spectacular rescue mission.

Shalit's father Noam, who has led the public campaign for his son's release, said that "in principle I ask that the return of my son be included in any ceasefire accord" for the Gaza war.

But when told that the freeing of his son was not among the official war aims, he said enigmatically: "Things are not as they appear."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090117/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaisraelshalit

[cali]

1. I doubt that Shalit is alive

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. How long since since the last proof of life was received?

I too think he died soon after capture.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Early in the air strike phase there was a claim that Shalit was wounded