Italy “fully” supports efforts to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured four years ago by Hamas, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday after meeting with his father Noam.
Gilad Shalit’s abduction breaks “all international rules and shows the terrorist nature of Hamas”, Frattini said, adding that that indicates “that EU countries can not consider (Hamas) as a political interlocutor.
He also said that it was necessary to work with those who “can exert pressure on Hamas” in order to be able to exchange Shalit and several thousand Palestinian prisoners as a German mediator has suggested.
Frattini said that Italy was working with its “own contacts” such as “friendly” Arab countries, Turkey and the Quartet of international diplomatic powers to put an end to “this grave violation of all international rules.”
Shalit, now 23, was captured on June 25, 2006 by the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip and two other groups in a deadly cross-border dawn raid.
But years of diplomatic efforts to secure his release, which almost saw a breakthrough in December, have since hit a brick wall.

‘Gilad Shalit’s treatement is torture‘

The U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said Friday that Hamas was violating the rules of war by prohibiting Shalit from having contact with his family and the Red Cross.
Treatment of the young soldier is "cruel and inhuman," the group said in its report, adding that it matches a United Nations definition of torture because he has been denied any outside contact.
Shalit's parents will begin on Sunday a march from their home in northern Israel to Jerusalem where they will stage a protest outside of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence, a quest they say will end only with Gilad's return.
Thousands of yellow balloons were to be released across Israel for the 4th anniversary, a candle-lighting ceremony was planned in Tel Aviv and a major newspaper distributed yellow ribbons to its readers.
Several thousands people demonstrated in Paris earlier this week to show solidarity with Gilad Shalit.
The largest Israeli newspapers devoted front pages and several inside pages to the anniversary, with Maariv featuring an emotional appeal from Shalit's mother and Yediot Aharonot splashing the headline: "Gilad we love you."
Public radio devoted most of its early morning news magazines to the commemoration of Shalit's capture.