France pledged to help Israel recover the soldier held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Relatives of Gilad Shalit, an army conscript abducted and taken to Gaza by Hamas gunmen in June 2006, met Monday for 40 minutes with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. Shalit’s father, Noam, said Sarkozy took note of the fact that the soldier holds French nationality and is from a French family. “From the moment he assumed office, he told us he has been taking action on all relevant channels and with the relevant people,” Noam Shalit told Israel Radio. “He talks about this and considers Gilad a French citizen in all respects. He compared him to a Colombian citizen with French citizenship who was kidnapped.” Shalit said Sarkozy did not give the family concrete information about recovery efforts. The Shalits, who are still in Paris, also will be meeting with officials from the French Foreign Ministry.
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