JERUSALEM: Thousands of Israelis on Friday joined a march calling for the release of Gilad Shalit, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not pay "any price" to the soldier’s Hamas captors.
Netanyahu had made the announcement on Shalit in a bid to ease mounting pressure from the Israeli public for a prisoner swap deal that would lead to his release, but supporters of the captive soldier said the move may have backfired.
"We have about 20,000 participants today. It could be that the prime minister’s statement affected people and made them decide to take part," Shimshon Liebman, the head of the free Shalit campaign, told AFP.
On Sunday, Shalit’s family began a 12-day march from northern Israel to Jerusalem in a bid to put pressure on the government.
Netanyahu on Thursday confirmed his government was willing to free 1,000 prisoners to secure Shalit’s freedom but would not pay an unlimited price for a prisoner swap deal with Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza.
"That is the price that I am willing to pay for the release of Gilad Shalit," he said in a televised address, some four years after the soldier was snatched by Hamas in a cross-border raid.
Hamas wants Israel to release hundreds of prisoners, including several top insurgents responsible for killing scores of Israelis, but Israel has balked at some of the more notorious names on the list.
"The decision to release prisoners is difficult and complicated," insisted Netanyahu, arguing that many prisoners freed in earlier swap deals over the past 25 years had carried out further deadly attacks after being released.
But on Friday the numbers joining the family swelled dramatically and the marchers were expected to reach Netanyahu’s weekend home in the seaside town of Caesarea later in the day.
Analysts said Netanyahu appeared to be positioning himself against Shalit’s family.
"Gilad Shalit has been in prison for four years. Seven months have passed since the Netanyahu government relayed a proposal to Hamas. In all this time, it was not urgent for Netanyahu to stand before the people of Israel and explain the details of the deal," wrote Shimon Shiffer, a commentator with the Yediot Aharonot daily.
"But now, when the Shalit family’s march is approaching Jerusalem, Netanyahu becomes pressured. In an unwise move, he chose to go before the television cameras, thereby positioning himself directly against the pained Shalit family," he wrote.
Liebman, however, stressed the marchers were not against Netanyahu.
"What we have here is out of the ordinary, a mass march with no political pretensions," said Liebman. "We are not against the prime minister, but with him. We want to give him the strength to make the decision."
Shalit’s father Noam is planning on setting up camp outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem and has vowed not to return home without his son, who is now 23.
Talks with Shalit’s Hamas captors collapsed late last year when Israel offered via a German mediator to release around 1,000 prisoners. But Hamas never formally responded, and both sides have since blamed each other for the stalled talks.
In response to Netanyahu’s speech, Hamas said it had not received any new offer from Israel over Shalit, but was ready to restart indirect negotiations, which it said Israel had tried to sabotage.
