Arabic Paper Reports Shalit Video Received; Suggests Israel Thought Him Dead

Israel Army Radio reported on Sunday morning that an Arabic-language newspaper in the Gulf claims the Israeli government has received a one-minute videotape proving that captured soldier Gilad Shalit is alive. The report also suggested that Israel had informed the governments of the United States, Turkey and Egypt that Shalit "was no longer alive." Shalit was captured on June 25 when a raiding party of Palestinian factions crossed the border from the Gaza Strip and attacked an Israeli military position. Most Israelis believe that Shalit is alive, so the revelation that the government might have believed otherwise comes as a shock.