If I led Israel I would re-occupy Gaza and turn over every shack and every building until Gilad was found. I would round up every single fighter there or battle with any that fired on us and keep the IDF there fighting until Gilad was found. Olmert is disgusting he doesn't have the spine to run this country. The sooner he goes the better.

20 months with these loosers, who are we afraid of?

Under international law, the Red Cross/Crescent/Star of David should be allowed periodic visits with prisioners and letters should be exchanged both to and from prisoners. To date, Hamas continues to violate international law by refusing the most basic of humanitarian contact, revealing its true nature. By short circuiting International Law, Jimmy Carter is enabling Hamas to continue this violation of international law. The parents have a right to know that a third party has seen their son to confirm his condition. No doubt whatever Gilad said was coerced. Shame on Jimmy Carter for being this opportunist who gets paid large amounts by Arab interests to give a happy face to this brutality.

The man has done more to foster genuine peace in the Middle East than all of your leaders combined. The fact is, none of your leaders want peace. They want to steal more Palestinian. Lebanese, and Syrian land. They want wars with every counterbalancing force in the ME that threatens Israeli hegemony. The world prays that one day Gilad Shalit will safetly return to his home and family. We also pray that Israelis will recognize that their countiry's apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and bellicose actions against other ME countries are counterproductive to the point of being evil.

Let's please leave all the right, left, secular, religous etc., dialogue on one side. Israel has a captive soldier & son held in hell-like conditions. I for one just wish that his parents get their son home soon. We then obviously need to pay better attention in future to avoid other kidnappings by a denomic enemy.

No details from the messages are specific enough to prove they were not written shortly after Shalit's capture and before his death. Only Hamas sources claim to have seen Shalit, no one is Israel or any neutral party. Conclusion: Shalit is dead. Ha,as continues to its campaign of lies to achieve whatever it wants. THERE IS ONLY ONE ACCEPTABLE PROOF SHALIT IS ALIVE AND THAT WOULD BE HIS UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE. Know what, though? Ain't gonna happen!!!!

Perfect. The writer's attitude are lock-step with the nations on the subject of condemning Israel. Right out of the mouth's of the kings of nations a.k.a. Isaiah 53: "As many wondered about you Israel, How marred your appearance is from that of a man, and your features from that of a people." "And he came up like a sapling before it and like a root from dry ground, he had neither form nor attractiveness, and we saw him that he had no appearance, that we should have despised him."

Simple, just announce and start targeted killings of the Hamass leadership....starting off with Haniyeh! They all only care about their own lives ! I know some will say its already been tried, but last time Olmert announced this , he intentionally left the main leaders like Haniyeh off the list! Why???? Olmert wont do it because he is worried of derailing his bogus peace plan and for some reason is protecting Haniyeh! The man is disgustingly corrupt! Elections now and let Bibi do the job the coward olmert refuses to do.

Time to boycott being called up if we cant even trust our government to unconditionally look after our children and people.

What do you mean he was "taken prisoner" by Hamas? He was KIDNAPPED from ISRAELI SOIL by Hamas. I would expect something like this from The Guardian, but I am disappointed that you would dignify this outrage by portraying it as some sort of legitimate military operation.

Why is it that a Jewish prisoner may not be visited by the red cross? Israel should immediatelly bar red cross and family visits to hamas prisoners until the red cross can see him. this is garbage double standards and should not be tolerated. it is completely out of the line with international "laws" that hamas and the palestinians and various self righteous europeans are constantly complaining about.

The only word I can relate to in your tb is foster - Carter is like a foster parent to Israel, while he sucks up to the Arabs full time.

So - you wish to start targeted killings of the Hamas leadership. Well, "start" is a misnomer, since the IDF/Shabaq have been doing that for years. Your theory is greatly flawed for two reasons: a) the Hamas leadership "only care about their own lives." False. If you had a shred of knowledge about istishhaad you'd realise how mistaken you are. How many leaders of Hamas have been murdered by the Israelis, and yet more spring up to take their place. Obviously not afraid of death, and it is obvious that murdering them does not weaken Hamas. b) Your policy of more murders of leading Palestinians would see Shalit dead within the hour. What a fine tactician you would turn out to be. Perhaps the way to get back this prisoner of war is for the Israeli government to start releasing some of the hundreds of hostages it has in Israeli prisons. After all, fair is fair. Why on earth should Hamas release their (only) bargaining chip, while the Israeli government continues to kill, murder, imprison, hostage-take etc? However, obviously Shalit is such a good figure head for the Israeli self-flagellators that if he didn't exist as a hostage, you'd have to send some other poor, witless teenager into Gaza to give your government an excuse for more rapine and pillage.