OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli national security adviser Uzi Arad went to Egypt on Monday for talks which could be linked to efforts to free an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, media reported. Israel’s commercial Channel 2 television said Arad’s visit to Cairo was believed to be linked to talks on the release of Gilad Shalit, who was seized in June 2006 by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid.
Last month Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel of scuttling a deal to end Shalit’s three-year captivity in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas faction, one of the groups that seized him.
Mubarak, whose government has led efforts to broker the release, told Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper on July 9 “we were on the verge of receiving Shalit from Hamas and of putting him with us until you released some Palestinian [prisoners].” The Egyptian president alleged that Israel altered its terms for the prisoner swap, scuttling the deal.
Then a 19-year-old corporal, Shalit was captured by militants from Hamas and two smaller groups who had tunneled out of Gaza on June 25, 2006 and attacked an army post, killing two other soldiers.
Shalit, who has since been promoted to staff sergeant, is believed to be held somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, under Hamas control since the Islamist movement seized power in the Palestinian enclave two years ago.
Shalit, who also has French citizenship, has become a cause celebre on Israel. – AFP
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