Today, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met Noam Shalit, the father of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit who was seized in a cross-border raid in late June 2006, and who is still presumably being held somewhere in Gaza. Carter took a letter from Shalit’s parents to their son, and hopes to transfer it during a visit to Gaza next week.
Israel has said that it will not re-open the border crossings into Gaza until Gilad Shalit is returned home safely, while Hamas has been involved in on-and-off-again negotiations which would involve the release of large numbers — over one thousand — of the 11,000 Palestinians currently being detained by Israel. Noam Shalit just wants his son back, and has urged the Israeli government to do whatever is necessary.