Israel Matzav

Hamas: Shalit strengthened by value Israel places on human life

In an interview with Israel Radio that was played on its Noontime news magazine, Damascus-based Hamas official Salah Alarori said that Gilad Shalit drew strength during his captivity from the value Israel places on human life.

"Schalit's captors treated him well for the majority of his captivity and were not violent toward him," asserted Alarori, who was a member of the negotiating team for the Schalit deal on behalf of Hamas.

"But Gilad also endured difficult moments when he missed his family," he added.

The Hamas official told Israel Radio that Schalit was in Gaza for the whole duration of his captivity, without leaving.

He further noted that captive soldier took his strength from the value that Israeli society places on human life. Alarori stated that as an enemy, he would prefer for Israeli society to lose this value.

I'm not sure why they would want us to lose that value - it's what makes us do lopsided deals like the one we did last week.

We already know that Shalit was abused for the first 6-12 months of his captivity. I suspect that after that - around the time that the publicity campaign for Gilad's release started - Hamas realized that Shalit was worth more to them alive than dead and started to treat him well enough so that he could be returned standing in stead of in a black box.

It's also amazing that the IDF did not make the effort to find Shalit given that he was in Gaza the entire time. We knew where he was during Operation Cast Lead.

Labels: Gilad Shalit, Hamas, Salah Alarori

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:49 PM