Noam Shalit, father of captive Israeli soldier, dies at 68

By TIA GOLDENBERG
Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Noam Shalit, the father of a captive Israeli soldier who battled for five years to free his son from his Hamas captors, has died. He was 68. A spokesman for Rambam hospital in northern Israel said Shalit died late Wednesday of cancer. Shalit as catapulted into the national spotlight after his son, Gilad was captured. He rallied the nation around his crusade, morphing his son’s plight into a national obsession that eventually saw then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ok a lopsided prisoner exchange for Gilad’s release. Palestinian militants abducted the wounded Gilad, then 19, from his tank in June 2006 in a brazen cross-border infiltration from Gaza.