2009
Oct. 2: Nineteen female Palestinian prisoners are released in exchange for a video showing Shalit in good health and speaking clearly about his situation and his desire to be reunited with his family.
Sept. 30: Following negotiations mediated by Egypt and Germany, Israel agrees to a prisoner release in exchange for a video of Shalit.
April 29: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that "We have committed ourselves to returning Gilad Shalit safe and sound to his parents."
April 21: Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official responsible for Shalit's case, resigns.
March 17: As it has in the past, the Israeli government rejects Hamas' conditions for releasing Shalit.
Feb. 10: Benjamin Netanyahu of the hard-right Likud Party is defeated in the election for prime minister, but the winner, Tzipi Tzipi Livni, proves incapable of forming a coalition. Netanyahu does.
Jan. 24: Israel's deputy defense minister claims the war on Gaza just ended would facilitate the release of Shalit.
2008:
Oct. 30: Egypt, a lead negotiator, declares that Shalit is well.
Sept. 4: French President Nicolas Sarkozy gives Syrian President Bashar el Assad a letter to Shalit, written by Shalit's father.
June 24: The Israeli supreme court rejects the Shalit family's plea that the siege of Gaza be maintained until Gilad's release. The siege is maintained anyway, and eventually leads to the 2008-09 war.
June 23: French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeals to Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, who is a French citizen.
June 9: Representatives of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, through the Carter Center, deliver a handwritten letter from Cpl. Gilad Schalit, held in Hamas captivity for two years, to his parents, Noam and Aviva.
2007:
April 8: Israel receives by way of Egypt a list of prisoners Hamas wants released in exchange for Shalit. The list includes 1,400 names, including that of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian activist and Fatah official Israel imprisoned in 2002 on murder charges.
Feb. 25: Defense Minister Amir Peretz announces that Israel is holding secret negotiations, presumably with Hamas, toward winning the release of Shalit.
Jan. 9: Hamas declares that Shalit is well.
2006:
Nov. 26: An Israeli assault on Gaza designed to win the release of Shalit ends with the killing of 400 Palestinians, most of them civilian.
July 12: War breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah after Hezbollah militants capture two Israeli soldiers in a commando raid similar to Hamas' capture of Shalit. The war lasts until Aug. 14. Much of Lebanon's major infrastructure is demolished. Some 1,200 Lebanese civilians and from 250 to 600 Hezbollah militants are killed, along with 44 Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers, including the two captured soldiers, whose remains are returned in July 2008 in exchange for the release of Palestinian terrorist Samir Kuntar.
June 28: Israel launches an assault on Gaza and arrests 60 Hamas officials, including a number of elected Hamas lawmakers.
June 6: In exchange for Shalit's release, Hamas demands the release of all female and juvenile Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisoners. Then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejects the demand.
June 25: Palestinian Hamas commandos attack a Israeli outpost at the Gaza border, kill two Israeli soldiers (two Palestinians are also killed) and capture Gilad Shalit.