The father of an Israeli soldier who has been in Gaza captivity for nearly three years left on Monday for the United States to meet senior officials, his wife said.
Noam Shalit will meet "senior officials of President Barack Obama's administration and members of Congress to plead the case of our son Gilad," Aviva Shalit told AFP.
Gilad Shalit was seized by Gaza militants, including those from the Hamas Islamist movement currently running the coastal strip, in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.
Israel and Hamas have for months conducted indirect talks through Egypt on a prisoner exchange deal that would see Shalit released in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but an agreement has so far been elusive.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
