Israeli Swap Soldier Shalit Returns Home
Updated: 10:48pm UK, Tuesday 18 October 2011
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has returned home after being freed as part of a prisoner swap deal with Palestine.
Sergeant Shalit, 25, was met by huge crowds lining the streets in the village of Mitzpe Hila in northern Israel.
He had earlier been flown to Tel Nof air base by helicopter where he was met by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family.
The soldier was freed after more than five years in captivity in the Gaza Strip in an exchange which will see 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in total also released.
Hundreds of those being freed under the deal with Hamas were serving life sentences for killing Israelis.
Sgt Shalit was greeted by a national outpouring of emotion in his home country, echoed by jubilant scenes in Gaza and the West Bank as their nationals returned.
As Palestine released the young soldier and he was flown home, Israel simultaneously released 477 Palestinian prisoners.
A military statement said the solder was in good health but witnesses said he felt nauseous and weak and had needed oxygen when he landed.
Mr Netanyahu told the soldier's parents as he waited with them: "I brought your boy home."
He insisted he felt the paid of relatives of Israelis killed by Palestinians and admitted the price of Sgt Shalit's release had been high. "It is a difficult day," he said.
:: Read the updates from the Sky News team as they happened
The freed soldier, appearing on Egyptian television, said he hoped his release would lead to peace between Israel and Palestine.
"You can't imagine how I felt when I heard I was going home," he said. "I received this news a week ago and I felt then that this would be my last chance to be free.
"They were long years. But I always thought the day would come when I finally get out of captivity. Of course I miss my family very much. I also miss my friends.
"I hope this deal will lead to peace between Palestinians and Israelis and that it will support cooperation between both sides."
However, there was little sign from either side that the deal could be the starting point of a new dialogue.
Tens of thousands of people at a rally in Gaza for freed prisoners urged fighters to capture more soldiers to help free other Palestinians still being held.
Crowds awaiting them at a West Bank checkpoint hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas.
Mr Netanyahu warned the former prisoners they would be "taking their life into their own hands" if they "returned to terror".
Sgt Shalit was only 19 when he was captured by three Gaza-based militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
Three days after he was snatched, Israel launched a huge military operation against Gaza to try to secure his release. It lasted five months and left more than 400 Palestinians dead.
But the operation was unsuccessful and in June 2007 Hamas seized power in Gaza, holding the young soldier at a secret location until now.
Egypt helped broker the deal between Israel and Hamas that allowed him to finally be freed.
Israeli officials have acknowledged it will be painful for the bereaved relatives but said it was the best agreement that could be reached.
Under its terms, 450 male and 27 female prisoners have been released, with a second batch, whose names have yet to be decided, to follow in the coming two months.
Among the freed Palestinians are Walid Anjas, who received 36 life sentences over a 2002 attack on a Jerusalem bar that killed 11 Israelis, and Nasr Yateyma, who was convicted of planning the 2002 Passover bombing which killed 29.
Others were involved in kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers.
Sgt Shalit's father Noam described the last five years as a "long, hard struggle" after the family returned home with the solder.
"Today we can say that we have gone through a rebirth of our son," he said.
But he admitted that even for his own family, the deal struck with Hamas for his release "is not easy".
He said his son was "feeling well" but had some minor injuries and would not come out to speak himself.
On the other side of the divide in Gaza, a national holiday was declared and flag-waving young men drove through the streets.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh embraced the freed prisoners as they piled out of buses.
Other former prisoners also received a heroes' welcome in Ramallah, the headquarters of Abbas's West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
"This is the greatest joy for the Palestinian people," said Azzia al-Qawasmeh, who was waiting for her son Amer, who she said had been in prison for 24 years.
Meanwhile, international efforts to revive peace talks have failed to bring both sides together for a meeting due in Jerusalem on October 26.
Envoys from the Quartet of mediators - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - will instead hold separate meetings with each party.
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