Israel on Thursday marked three years since IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted by Gaza-based terrorists during a bloody raid into southern Israel that left two other soldiers dead.

Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, asked all Israelis to remember his son's plight by closing their eyes for three minutes and imagining living in such darkness and uncertainty for years on end.

Left-wing Israeli human rights group B'Tselem tried to mark the date by taking out an ad in a Gaza Strip newspaper calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Shalit, but the ad purchase was rejected, presumably out of fear of a Hamas reprisal.

A B'Tselem spokeswoman said that apparently the press in Gaza is not so free as groups such as hers wanted to believe.