GAZA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross stepped up pressure on Hamas on Wednesday to allow it to see an Israeli soldier held captive by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip for more than a year. "We will leave no stone unturned," ICRC director-general Angelo Gnaedinger told reporters after discussing the fate of Sergeant Gilad Shalit with Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Hamas administration in the coastal Palestinian territory. "We will keep pressing (Hamas) to see him." Gunmen from Hamas and two other Palestinian militant groups abducted Shalit in a June, 2006 border raid. They have demanded that Israel free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for the soldier. Israel has balked at releasing senior jailed militants. Red Cross officials said they raised Shalit with Hamas in five previous meetings, but that Gnaedinger's visit was the most senior-level appeal. Vouching for the wellbeing of prisoners of war is among the Swiss-based agency's international roles. Hamas, an Islamist group isolated in Gaza since it ousted forces loyal to secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June, has allowed no outside contact with Shalit. It has cited concern Israel could try to mount a rescue raid. Hamas has said Shalit is in good condition and released a letter and a scripted voice recording by the 21-year-old conscript. A Hamas official quoted Haniyeh, who served as prime minister in a government dissolved by Abbas, as telling Gnaedinger that "security complications" prevented "communications with the factions holding the soldier". "We hope that the entire crisis will end and that Palestinian prisoners and the soldier Shalit will be released in an honourable prisoner-swap deal," Haniyeh said, according to the official.
