City stops for rally for soldier's release

JERUSALEM: The main entrance to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and some of the city's main streets were closed to traffic yesterday as thousands joined a march seeking the release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit, the Israeli Army conscript seized by Gaza militants four years ago. The climactic day of the 12-day march from Shalit's family home in northern Israel ended with a rally in a Jerusalem park.

The Shalit family and their supporters say they will now hold a vigil outside the home of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, until the 23-year-old sergeant is freed.

Negotiations for his release brokered by a German mediator failed six months ago.

The march was joined yesterday by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who said: "The fact that Gilad is not here says that we have not done enough."

Netanyahu has said he is ready to exchange 1000 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit's release but that the most dangerous prisoners would not be freed.

- Independent