Israel Matzav

Shalit went on hunger strike before his release

YNet reports that Gilad Shalit went on a hunger strike shortly before his release from Hamas captivity, and the fear that Shalit would not be worth anything to them dead led Hamas to compromise on the terrorists for Gilad trade.

An intelligence source said that "there were those in Hamas who feared that the extreme conditions under which Shalit was being held would mean they could not offer him the help he needed and he would die on them," and so they compromised over the details of the prisoner exchange deal.

The report also reveals that Shalit was injured from shrapnel during the kidnapping which just barely missed his vital organs. The wounds eventually healed.

Newly released details also reveal that for the most part Shalit's captors did not physically abuse him, other than beatings that did not leave any long lasting or permanent damage.

The news of Shalit's abduction led to a flurry of activity in Israel in a bid to find out which organizations were behind the attack and a great deal of effort was invested in trying to locate the place where Shalit was being held.

At a certain point Israel believed the intelligence efforts would bear fruit. Information that reached Israel claimed that the captive soldier was being kept in a northern Gaza house surrounded by a wall. Israel exerted many efforts in trying to find out exactly what was going on in the house and was even considering the possibility of a rescue mission.

Luckily, they found out that Iran and Hamas were "feeding" the information to Israeli intelligence: The house was in fact empty and booby trapped. The scheme set up by Iran and Hamas was to lure the Israeli rescue forces into the house and then blow it up with the forces inside.

...

The terrible disaster was averted but from that moment on, Israel had no idea of Shalit's whereabouts. The reason Israeli military and intelligence sources found it so difficult to find Shalit's location was because of the compartmentalizing on Hamas' part.

Shalit was guarded by four Hamas members who were brought in from abroad especially for the secret mission. The foreign operatives were not replaced at any time during Gilad's captivity. "The four guards basically sentenced themselves to the same conditions in which Gilad was being incarcerated," the Israeli intelligence source noted.

Hmmm.

Labels: Gilad Shalit, Hamas, terrorists for Gilad trade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:26 AM