Color me shocked. I thought he was dead, and frankly, still think he may be. I don’t trust Hamas at all. But Hamas released a tape by Gilad Shalit.
An Israeli soldier captured a year ago by militants from Gaza asked for medical treatment and urged Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Monday.
Except for a handwritten letter to his parents in September, there had been no sign of life from Gilad Shalit since the tank gunner was spirited into the Gaza Strip by gunmen who tunneled across the border into Israel on June 25, 2006.
“I have been in prison for an entire year and my health is deteriorating. I need lengthy hospitalization,” Shalit, speaking in Hebrew, said on the tape.
“I regret the lack of interest of the Israeli government and military in my case and their failure to meet the demands.”
Shalit’s father, speaking to Israeli television, confirmed the voice was that of his son, a conscript now aged 20. He was promoted to sergeant from corporal while in captivity.
Hamas, one of three militant groups that claimed responsibility for the joint operation in which Shalit was seized, said earlier it would release the tape to mark the first anniversary of his capture.
And let us point out once again that Hamas is the supposed democratically-elected government of the Palestinians, and so the democratically-elected government of the Palestinians, with whom former president Jimmy Carter thinks the world should negotiate, are acting like the band of criminals and murderers they are, trying to extort concessions from Israel, instead of trying to, say, negotiate in good faith, like real governments do. But Hamas has never been a real government. Real governments don’t murder the opposition party.
By the way, the above is from Reuters, who call the attackon Shalit “a cross-border raid.” So does the AP.
Shalit was captured on June 25, 2006, in a cross-border raid by militants from Hamas and two allied groups who tunneled into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Negotiations for his release, mediated by Egypt, have repeatedly broken down and been complicated since Hamas took control of Gaza two weeks ago.
Let’s take a look at what the AP wrote a year ago about that “cross-border raid.”
KIBBUTZ KEREM SHALOM, Israel Jun 25, 2006 (AP)— Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated Israel through a tunnel early Sunday, lobbing grenades and bombs at a military outpost and killing two Israeli soldiers and seizing a third.
The ruling Hamas group said its fighters participated in the attack, calling it an act of revenge for Israel’s recent killing of militant leaders and civilians. Militants said three of their fighters were killed in a gunbattle with soldiers.
[…] Militants crossed under Israel’s border fence with Gaza through a tunnel and lobbed bombs and grenades at an Israeli tank and an armored personnel carrier at the border post, the military said. Simultaneously, anti-tank missiles were fired at both vehicles from inside Gaza, the army said.
Two other militants, meanwhile, attacked a 25-yard high observation post with assault rifles, touching off a gunbattle with soldiers in which several militants were killed, the military said.
Some little raid, huh?
And in a man-bites-dog angle, B’tselem has accused someone other than Israel of war crimes:
Meanwhile, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accused the militants holding Shalit of war crimes.
“International humanitarian law absolutely prohibits taking and holding a person by force in order to compel the enemy to meet certain demands, while threatening to harm or kill the person if the demands are not met,” the group said. “Furthermore, hostage-taking is considered a war crime.”
Someone check the sky for flying pigs.