As of the end of May 2008, Israeli authorities were detaining 8,550 Palestinians , of whom 282 were minors (and 37 of them under 16 ), roughly the same numbers as when Shalit was captured.
Gilad Shalit one of Three Hostages in Arab Hands
Shalit became the fourth Israeli soldier abducted in the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1994. Hezbollah militants captured three Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Lebanon border in 2000. On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah militants in South Lebanon staged a cross-border raid, capturing two Israeli soldiers--Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. That incident sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, in conjunction with Israel's assault on Gaza.
Israel was able to recover none of the captured soldiers by way of military retaliation. Rather, retaliation escalated conflict on both fronts. The war with Lebanon ended inconclusively for Israel, leading an[ Israeli commission to conclude that the Israeli government and military's strategy in the war had been poorly thought out and executed, with no clear objective.
Israeli Criticism for Israeli Government Over Gilad Shalit Crisis
The Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took severe criticism for its handling of the Shalit abduction and the subsequent war in Lebanon. Demonstrations were held outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, protesting the government's inaction and seeming confusion over how to attain the hostages' release.
In June 2008, Israel and Hamas announced that they would abide by the terms of a six-month truce negotiated with Egypt's intermediary. The truce, however, was not contingent on Shalit's release--at least not initially. Shalit's father, Noam, was reportedly threatening legal action against the Israeli government. "He also expressed concern," the newspaper reported, "that the reopening of Gaza's border crossings will cause Israel to lose whatever leverage remains regarding Gilad's release, and that the matter will drag on for many years."
Gilad Shalit's Captivity a War Crime
On June 6, 2007, the first anniversary of Shalit's captivity, B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, released a statement regarding Shalit's captivity. It read in part:
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. Furthermore, hostage-taking is considered a war crime and all those involved bear individual criminal liability.Hamas, which de-facto controls the security apparatus in the Gaza Strip, bears the responsibility to act to release Shalit immediately and unconditionally. Until he is released, those holding him must grant him humane treatment and allow representatives of the [International Committee of the Red Cross] to visit him. The fact that Shalit's right to these visits has been denied constitutes a blatant violation of international law, says B'Tselem.
