Israeli Soldier, on Tape, Pleads for Prisoner Swap

A Year After Capture, Shalit Says He Needs To Be Hospitalized

JERUSALEM, June 25 -- Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, in an audiotape aired on Israeli television on the first anniversary of his seizure by Hamas-affiliated militias, warned Monday that his health is deteriorating and asked the Israeli government to free Palestinian prisoners to win his release.

Shalit, an army corporal who has turned 20 in captivity, began his 93-second message by telling his parents, siblings and fellow soldiers that he was addressing them from his "jail" in the Gaza Strip and that he missed them. Speaking entirely in Hebrew in his first public statement since his capture, he said he needs "prolonged hospitalization" for an unspecified condition.

Shalit's voice, confirmed by his father, Noam, served as narrative for a video montage of Israeli military forces arresting Palestinians and carrying out other operations. Emblazoned alongside the pictures was the logo of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, which earlier this month routed forces from the rival Fatah party to take control of Gaza.

"I am sorry the Israeli government and the IDF are not caring enough about my case and not meeting the demands of Izzedine al-Qassam," Shalit said on the tape, likely recorded under duress. The initials refer to the Israel Defense Forces. "It is clear they must meet those demands if they want me to be released from prison."

Shalit was captured when Palestinian gunmen attacked his post inside Israel after tunneling beneath the Gaza-Israel boundary. Within days, Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza -- for the first time since Israel evacuated the strip in the fall of 2005 -- in an operation designed to force Shalit's release. But weeks of heavy ground fighting and intensive Israeli airstrikes -- which targeted Gaza's bridges, ministries and only power plant -- failed to free him.

In the days after Shalit's capture, the Palestinian groups behind the attack demanded that Israel release more than 400 women and minors from Israeli prisons in exchange for proof Shalit was alive. Israel declined.

Talks between Israel and the groups, brokered by Egyptian intelligence officials, have taken place sporadically since then. They have foundered over how many and which of the more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails would be released in exchange for Shalit.

The audiotape prompted some Israeli officials, including at least one member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet, to call for a resumption of indirect negotiations with Hamas to secure Shalit's release. The Israeli government considers the Islamic movement, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, a terrorist organization.

"There is no end to the cruelty of Hamas," said Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman. "Today's audio of Gilad, together with the brutality we have seen recently in Gaza and the harsh terror we have all lived under, shows more clearly than ever why Israel will not compromise with Hamas. They have no interest in compromising."