Relatives of captive soldier Gilad Shalit will board a ship on September 7 that will sail from Ashdod to a point opposite the Gaza coast, according to activists working for Shalit's release.

They are to be joined by members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Zubin Mehta, who will perform in the presence of journalists from Israel and abroad.

The plan is to have the ship rendezvous with a ship of activists from Gaza carrying gift packages for both Rosh Hashanah and the Muslim feast of Eid el-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

In May, an Israeli flotilla set off from shores of Herzliya as a response to the Gaza flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian activists that set off from Turkey to Gaza, as part of the nine-ship 'Freedom Flotilla' convoy.

The banners the Israeli ships carried noted Gaza rocket fire toward Israel and displayed photos of the captured IDF soldier.

On Tuesday, the family of Gilad Shalit marked his 24th birthday according to the Hebrew calendar and his 1,500th day of captivity with a news conference in East Jerusalem.

The family sought to speak directly to the Palestinian people on the occasion of the upcoming Muslim month of Ramadan.

They noted that a prisoner exchange resulting in Shalit's release now would let the Arab prisoners set free in such a deal be home for the holiday.

The passage of time does not benefit either the Shalit family or the families of the Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, Shalit's father Noam said.

"We and you have loved ones who are not with us but are in our hearts," he added. "The damage caused my family has been caused to thousands of Palestinian families."

The elder Shalit's remarks were translated by an interpreter who stood at his side.

"We are asking you to increase the pressure on your leaders, just as we are acting and applying pressure on our leaders to push the proposed prisoner exchange, which is honorable and significant," Noam Shalit said.