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Gaza: Still No Red Cross Access to Captured Israeli Soldier Gilad Shalit

[International Committee of the Red Cross] Pierre Wettach - Since Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian armed factions on 25 June 2006, the International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly asked to be allowed to visit and to convey family messages to him. In November, the ICRC requested that Hamas forward to him thousands of letters and greeting cards from various organizations, individuals and schoolchildren. Unfortunately, all these requests have been refused. We will continue to do everything we can to obtain information on Gilad Shalit's condition, to gain direct access to him, and to establish contact between him and his family. We would like to meet him in private to make an independent assessment of the conditions he is held in and of his state of health. As a humanitarian organization, we have limited leverage in these matters. All we can do is to remind those who control the situation of their obligation to act in accordance with the spirit and letter of international humanitarian law. The parties to an armed conflict, be they states or non-state groups, have to uphold the law. The writer is head of the ICRC's delegation in Israel and the territories. Gilad Shalit has been in captivity for 901 days.
2008-12-12 08:00:00
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