AFP - Israelis on Tuesday stopped for five minutes to remember the ongoing captivity of Gilad Shalit, a young soldier captured by Gaza-based militants in 2006.

It was not immediately possible to know how many people joined in the five-minute show of solidarity, which began at exactly 11:00 am (0900 GMT), but an AFP correspondent witnessed hundreds participating in Jerusalem.

"We will demonstrate for five minutes for Gilad to represent five years in prison!" said a flyer distributed by the organisers, which called on the population to leave their homes and offices and stand in the street in silence.

"The prime minister cannot ignore thousands Israelis out into the streets," it said.

Some 200 activists blocked several major road junctions near the Shalit protest tent outside the Jerusalem home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The soldier's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, stood in the middle of the road holding up a banner calling for his release, and many Israeli drivers -- who tend to be hostile to holdups in traffic -- stopped their cars and joined in.

But it was no silent protest as many chanted slogans calling for his release and at the end of the five minutes, demonstrators broke into applause and cars began honking as police sought to get the traffic moving again.

Shalit was captured by militants from the Islamist Hamas movement and two other Palestinian groups on June 25, 2006 in a deadly cross-border raid.

Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip a year later, has demanded hundreds of prisoners in exchange for his release, including scores of top militants responsible for deadly attacks.

But talks over a prisoner swap deal broke down in December 2009 and have not resumed since, angering the family which wants the Israeli government to pay up to secure Shalit's release.