Noam said he imagined that his son knew how hard his family had been working to release him and that he wanted to see him return as quickly as possible.
A picture of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit is shown next to a photo of Hamas fighters on the group's Website.
Photo: Channel 2
"On the face of it, this seems like a good sign," he said, but he noted that in the last year there had been many reports in the media that had made it seem as if Gilad's release were imminent but that in the end nothing had happened.
The Hamas takeover in Gaza, he said, had not caused him any more fear than he had already felt for Gilad's safety every day in the last year. "Everything that happens in Gaza worries us and touches us," he said.
Noam refrained from giving advice to the government, saying only that "what I say to the prime minister I say to him in private."
In the Egyptian resort of Sharm e-Sheikh, where the summit was in progress, Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, called the tape a "cruel gimmick" and ruled out negotiations with Hamas. "How cruel can Hamas be?" she asked. "We will not cooperate with Hamas. We will not compromise with Hamas."
An Olmert aide said the Israeli premier asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to continue mediating for the soldier's release.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni denounced Hamas for making what she called "cynical use of the suffering of Gilad Schalit." She said that Hamas was trying to "dictate its own brutal agenda in the region in order to undermine a political process which is taking place right now in order to create a better future for the region," a reference to the summit.
Meanwhile, the human rights group B'tselem accused Schalit's captors of war crimes, noting their refusal to allow Red Cross workers to visit Schalit.
But a member of one of the three Hamas groups linked with the kidnapping said he was well treated.
"His health is good and he's stable. We are treating him according to our religion's instructions on how to deal with war prisoners," said Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees.
Abu Mujahid said Schalit "doesn't need anything" and is receiving the "best treatment." He called for Schalit's family to pressure the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for freeing the soldier.
Abu Mujahid dismissed B'tselem's accusations, saying Schalit was captured in a tank that was used to fight Palestinians.
"Any occupiers on the land are a legitimate target because they are soldiers," Abu Mujahid said. Israel is the one that has committed war crimes by killing Palestinian civilians, he said.
While focus was drawn to the Schalit kidnapping, the families of Ehud Goldwasser, 32, and Eldad Regev, 26, have still not received any sign from the two men since they were kidnapped by Hizbullah on the northern border.
The lack of knowledge with respect to their fate was referenced by Brig.-Gen. Udi Dekel, who is head of the IDF's Strategic Planning Division.
He is also in charge of talks with the Lebanese government and UNIFIL, the international force that now guards the Lebanese border with Israel.
"At every meeting I ask about information about the kidnapped soldiers. Their answer is that this is not the issue of the Lebanese government, because the Lebanese government is not responsible," said Dekel. He spoke Monday at a special program at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya.
The problem was that Hizbullah does not even want to negotiate, he said. Requests for information or for the Red Cross to visit have been denied, he added.
AP contributed to this report.
