The family of an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants two years ago have received a letter from their son begging them to help secure his release.

The hand-written letter from Corporal Gilad Schalit was delivered to his family through the intercession of the Carter Centre, the humanitarian organization founded by former US president Jimmy Carter. Hamas, the hardline Islamist group holding the 21-year-old soldier, has said that a response from the family could be sent through the same channels.

Noam Schalit, Gilad’s father, said his son had begged for his life in the letter and pleaded for more to be done to secure his release. His son is believed to be held in an underground facility somewhere in the southern Gaza Strip.

"This is better than nothing, but it doesn't relax us, and it doesn't change the fact that Gilad has been in captivity for almost two years and it doesn't look like there is any progress in the contacts for Gilad's release," Mr Schalit said.

The soldier’s letter was sent by fax from Gaza to the Carter Centre’s offices in Ramallah, in the West Bank. "The letter was sent in a goodwill gesture to former President Jimmy Carter and to indicate Hamas's seriousness in its desire to reach a prisoner swap deal that will close the Schalit file and fulfill the demands of the Palestinian groups who abducted Shalit," said Osama al-Muzaini, a senior Hamas official.

Israel and Hamas refuse to talk directly with each other, but Egypt has been trying to mediate a ceasefire between them for months to end the deadly cycle of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli army raids. Hamas has resisted Israeli efforts to include Corporal Schalit’s release into the deal, while Israel has rejected a list of hundreds of prisoners Hamas wants freed in return for the soldier.

The last sign of life from the captive Israeli was a year ago, when a recording of his voice said he was in poor health. Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas in exile in Damascus, told Mr Carter in talks two months ago that the soldier was still alive.

Mr Carter came in for harsh criticism from Israel for talking with Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the West. But Mr Carter, who brokered Israel’s first peace treaty with an Arab country in 1979, when Egypt broke ranks with the Arab world, has defended his efforts to break through the deadlock and violence and talk to Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in early 2006.

"Through more official consultations with these outlawed leaders, it may yet be possible to revive and expedite the stalemated peace talks between Israel and its neighbours," Mr Carter wrote in the New York Times.

Corporal Schalit was dragged off by Palestinian militants from three separate factions who had dug a tunnel under the border fence dividing Israel from the Gaza Strip and attacked his outpost. One of the factions was later responsible for kidnapping Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist released last summer after Hamas won absolute control of the Gaza Strip in a pitched battle with its secular rivals Fatah, who are now locked into protracted peace talks with Israel.

With Egypt’s mediation efforts making little headway and Palestinian rockets still regularly targeting communities in southern Israel, the cabinet in Jerusalem was due to meet to discuss whether to continue to seek a ceasefire or launch a massive raid into Gaza to try to smash Hamas.

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