Word: shalit
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Israel proved once again just how much it values the lives of its soldiers when it released 20 female Palestinian prisoners Friday in exchange for a videotape. The footage, which was verified by Israeli intelligence officials, shows Israeli Sergeant Gilad Shalit alive and well as recently as two weeks ago, more than 1,000 days after he was captured by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and dragged into the Gaza Strip...
...Even by the standards of the Israeli army, which makes every effort to retrieve its fallen comrades - dead or alive - from the battlefield, Shalit's fate has taken on extraordinary importance. Following his capture along the Israel-Gaza border in June 2006, Israel has launched three major incursions into Gaza, with one of the main goals being the rescue of Shalit. Instead, the offensives killed 18 Israelis and around 1,700 Palestinians - and Shalit remains in enemy hands. Hamas also has not allowed the Red Cross to visit Shalit in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and the last sign that...
...Gaza brought on by the ongoing economic siege. While Hamas is currently enforcing the cease-fire it adopted seven months ago at the close of Israel's Gaza invasion, the economic siege remains largely in place - although if Egyptian-mediated negotiations over the fate of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are successfully resolved, that might prompt Israel to ease the pressure...
...flexing its own muscles while Fatah held the spotlight, Hamas has renewed talks through the Egyptians over the release of captive Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners. If Hamas pulls off the deal, it would undermine Abbas' own credibility, since his years of negotiating with the Israelis in U.S.-sponsored peace talks yielded few positive results hailed by ordinary Palestinians. Over 11,000 Palestinians remain in Israel captivity, and Abbas has long demanded that Israel free many of them, but to no avail...
...influence is waning even in his own Fatah organization. It has become conventional wisdom internationally that no credible peace process is possible without the consent of Hamas, with whom the Israelis have had to negotiate over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. The movement's leaders believe that Israel will cut a deal with Hamas to free Shalit and ease the blockade of Gaza because both sides stand to gain from such a deal, and neither much minds if that further weakens Abbas' authority. (Watch a video about Israel's lonesome doves...