page_title: Gilad Shalit
section_title: Capture
hierarchical_section_title: Gilad Shalit / Capture
caption_attribution_description: English: Gilad Shalit on Hamas poster, Nablus said: "Our hero prisoners We hope that Every year and new Gilad" and down&#160;:"They (Palestinian prisoners) are not alone"
context_page_description: Gilad Shalit is a former MIA soldier of the Israel Defense Forces who on 25 June 2006, was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid via tunnels near the Israeli border. Hamas held him captive for over five years, until his release on 18 October 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
  During his captivity, Hamas turned down requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross to be allowed to visit Shalit, claiming that any such visit could betray his location. Multiple human rights organizations criticized this stance, claiming that the conditions of Shalit's confinement were contrary to international humanitarian law. The Red Cross stated, "The Shalit family have the right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their son". The only communication in the early months came through an intermediary, who claimed that a low-ranking Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, asked him to convey to Shalit's parents assurance that Shalit was "alive and was treated according to Islam's laws regarding prisoners of war, in other words, he had been given shelter, food and medical care."
context_section_description: Early on 25 June 2006, Palestinian militants from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees, and Army of Islam crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip through a tunnel near Kerem Shalom, and attacked an IDF post. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and another two, apart from Shalit, were wounded. Two of the attacking Palestinian militants were also killed. Shalit suffered a broken left hand and a light shoulder wound, and the militants captured him and took him via a tunnel into Gaza.
  Shalit's captors issued a statement the following day, offering information on Shalit if Israel were to agree to release all female Palestinian prisoners and all Palestinian prisoners under the age of 18. The statement was issued by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas), and a previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Islam.
  Shalit was the first Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians since Nachshon Wachsman, in 1994. His capture and the following cross-border raid by Hezbollah, resulting in the capture of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev into Lebanon, occurred prior to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon during summer 2006.
  The high-ranking Hamas commander whom Israel considers responsible for masterminding Shalit's capture, Abu Jibril Shimali, was killed during the violent clashes between Hamas and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jund Ansar Allah organization in Gaza in August 2009.
caption: Shalit on a Hamas poster in Nablus, 7 May 2007 that reads: "Our champion captives. May we have a new Gilad each year”; and below: “They [Palestinian prisoners] are not alone".
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