AFP - Israelis on Thursday marked the third anniversary of the capture by Hamas of soldier Gilad Shalit as Human Rights Watch called his continued detention "cruel and inhumane."
  
Several newspapers ran front-page photos of the young soldier, who is believed to be held in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
  
Family, friends and supporters planned to gather in front of the defence ministry in Tel Aviv to call for Shalit's release.
  
Shalit, then a 19-year-old corporal, was snatched by militants from Hamas and two smaller groups who had tunnelled out of Gaza on June 25, 2006, and attacked an army post, killing two other soldiers.
  
Shalit, who has been promoted to sergeant during his captivity, is believed to be held somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since the Islamist movement violently seized power in the Palestinian enclave two years ago.
  
The Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel recently received information via Egyptians involved in mediation with Hamas that Shalit is in reasonable health.
  
"Hamas authorities should immediately allow Sgt Gilad Shalit of Israel to communicate with his family and to receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross," the New York-based HRW said.
  
"Hamas’s prolonged incommunicado detention of Shalit is cruel and inhumane and may amount to torture," it in a statement.
  
"Hamas authorities have no excuse for cutting off Shalit from his family and the outside world for three years," said Sarah Leah Whitson, who heads HRW's Middle East section.
  
"Punishing Shalit for grievances against Israel is unjust and unlawful," HRW said, adding that "the laws of war prohibit cruel and inhuman treatment of persons in custody."
  
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called for Shalit's release and also said he must be allowed family and ICRC visits.
  
"The circumstances of Shalit’s capture three years ago and the behaviour of his captors clearly indicate that he is legally a hostage. Hostage taking is absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian law," B'Tselem said.
  
Israel and Hamas have held months of indirect talks through Egypt on a prisoner swap that would see hundreds of Palestinian detainees set free in exchange for Shalit, but no deal has been struck.
  
Hamas has rejected requests by the ICRC to visit Shalit.
  
HRW also said that Israel has "deprived Palestinian prisoners of family visits." An ICRC programme that allowed Gaza relatives to visit Palestinian prisoners held in Israel was suspended when Israel imposed a tight blockade on the coastal strip following the Hamas takeover.
  
The rights group also said Israeli authorities have detained Hamas members without charge in the West Bank in arrests related to the Shalit case.
  
"It’s time for both Israel and Hamas to stop destroying lives and families by using the other side’s detainees as bargaining chips," Whitson said.
  
One of the sticking points in the prisoner swap negotiations is the demand that Palestinians involved in violent attacks be included in those released in exchange for Shalit.
  
But an opinion poll issued on Thursday indicated that 69 percent of Jewish Israelis support the release of Palestinian prisoners who have been directly involved in violent attacks as part of the deal. Twenty-eight percent are against, according to the poll published by YNet News.
  
Fifty-one percent of respondents said they believed Shalit would be released within a year, 19 percent said there was little to no chance of seeing him freed by next year and eight percent said they did not believe he would ever be released.