(IsraelNN.com) National Union/National Religious Party Knesset Member Effie Eitam praised IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi Tuesday morning for his opposition to the release of Gaza terrorists who were among the 441 terrorists to be freed in another "good will gesture" by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the Palestinian Authority.

Eitam tendered his congratulations to Ashkenazi at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in which the army chief briefed MKs on the security situation on the northern and southern borders. Ashkenazi told the committee that he was not opposed to releasing prisoners necessarily, but as long as Gilad Shalit is held in Gaza, Israel should not release any Palestinian prisoners." Ashkenazi expressed his objections in a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, he said.

IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006 and has not been seen since. One year later, in June 2007, PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas lost control of the region, which is now ruled by the Hamas terrorist faction.