Captured Israeli soldier alive: Palestinian official

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – An Israeli soldier captured
by Palestinian militants a week ago is alive and in a stable
condition after being treated for wounds, a Palestinian
official said on Saturday.

Militants seized Corporal Gilad Shalit in a raid across the
Gaza Strip’s frontier, sparking a crisis that has sent
Israeli-Palestinian relations to new lows. The militants have
not said if Shalit was alive or dead.

Ziad Abu Ein, an official with moderate President Mahmoud
Abbas’s Fatah movement, said mediators involved in efforts to
free the soldier had reported he was fine.

“He is in a stable condition according to mediators,” Abu
Ein told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“He was treated by a Palestinian doctor. He is fine now.”

Abu Ein did not say when the doctor saw Shalit.