On the instruction of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, a new team has been assembled and tasked with taking a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the abduction of Gilad Shalit. Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas forces in August 2006 during a cross-border raid near Kerem Shalom, in northern Israel. For the past five years he has been held in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip. The new team, with Col. (res) Lior Lotan at the helm, will comb through all the evidence on file in the hopes of uncovering information on Shalit's whereabouts that may have previously been overlooked. Intelligence information undergo extra scrutiny, IDF officials said on Wednesday. Lotan, a former officer in Sayeret Matkal, the general staff reconnaissance unit, was previously commander of the IDF's hostage negotiation unit. Before stepping down in February, former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi admitted that Israel had hit a dead end trying to determine Shalit's location, and without fresh intelligence the chances of being able to send in a rescue mission were nill. Shalit holds dual French and Israeli citizenship. Friends of the Shalit family told the media on Wednesday that Gilad's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, have been notified that the French judicial system has appointed two judges to look into their complaint regarding the conditions of their son's captivity and the exact identity of his kidnappers.
