The father of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying failure to free him amounted to a death sentence.
A day after Israel marked exactly five years since Gaza-based militants seized him in a cross-border raid, Noam Shalit vowed to step up a public campaign to pressure Netanyahu to accept a prisoner swap deal with his Palestinian captors.
Netanyahu "does not have a mandate to sentence Gilad to death," Shalit said, speaking at a press conference at the protest tent in which the family lives outside Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem.
"Netanyahu and his advisers, through some unexplainable weakness, are afraid to take a decision with risks, even though these are measured risks," he said, referring to a prisoner exchange.
Gilad Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006 by three armed groups, including the Islamist movement Hamas, and has been held ever since at a secret location in the Gaza Strip.
He has not been permitted visits by the Red Cross and the last sign of life dates back to October 2009 when Hamas released a video of him calling on Netanyahu to do everything to free him.
For now, Netanyahu is refusing to agree to Hamas's demand for the release of 1,000 Palestinians, including 450 with Israeli blood on their hands, having carried out attacks -- unless some of the worst offenders are exiled.
So far, Hamas has rejected this condition.
A series of protests calling for Shalit's release were held over the weekend.
France's ambassador Christophe Bigot gave the Shalits a letter from French President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed to Gilad, who also holds French nationality, saying "France will never abandon you."
Sarkozy's letter, addressed "Dear Gilad" and seen by AFP, said he does not accept "the isolation which your jailers have imposed upon you for five years, in violation of all the norms of international law and the most basic principles of humanity."
"You are spending the years of your youth in the most extreme solitude," Sarkozy wrote. "This situation is outrageous. Nothing could justify it."
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