Israel family protests son's 1,000th day in captivity

The family of Israeli conscript Gilad Shalit angrily protested their son's 1,000th day in captivity on Saturday as hopes faded for his release any time soon.

The Shalits dismantled the protest camp they have maintained outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence but pressed the outgoing premier to use the dying days of his term of office to secure the freedom of their 22-year-old son.

"We are living a nightmare," father Noam Shalit told journalists. "Ehud Olmert, you still have two weeks to act before it's too late."

Right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged with a forming a new government in Israel after last month's general election. He has just been given an additional fortnight by President Shimon Peres to complete his coalition talks.

Shalit on Friday angrily blamed outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for failing to secure the release of his son, who was captured by Palestinian militants in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.

"Olmert failed and never really dealt with the issue from the start. The bottom line is that he failed," he said.

"I was never optimistic and I never imagined that what he failed to do in nearly 1,000 days he would succeed at the last minute," he added, referring to the failure of Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at securing a prisoner exchange.

The Islamist Hamas movement that seized power in Gaza in June 2007 had demanded Israel free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for Shalit, including scores of men implicated in deadly attacks on Israelis.

Olmert on Tuesday blamed Hamas for the failure of the Egyptian-brokered prisoner talks, saying Israel was prepared to release 320 of the 450 prisoners demanded by the group but that there were "red lines" he would not cross.

Olmert will soon likely be succeeded by a right-wing government led by the hawkish Netanyahu, who has not said how he would try to secure Shalit's release but is expected to take a harder line with Hamas.

In the meantime Israel has vowed to step up pressure on the group and Olmert has said Israel will not lift a punishing economic blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed after Hamas took power until Shalit is set free.

The conscript was seized at the age of 19 and has become a cause celebre in Israel, where military service is compulsory and many believe the government has a sacred duty to bring all its soldiers home.

The protest tent has drawn thousands of people from all walks of life and different parts of the country over the past two weeks, many of them teenagers looking ahead to the start of their military service at age 18.

Shalit has been held in a secret location since his capture and the last word from him came in June 2008, when he was allowed to send a letter to his family in which he begged the government to secure his release.

He had previously been allowed to send two letters and an audiotape.









Curry