Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held in Gaza for more than five years, feels OK, but is suffering from minor shrapnel wounds that were insufficiently treated and the impact of years of no exposure to sunlight, his father said, DPA reported.
"Today we end a long and exhausting journey that started in June 2006 and ended after five years and four months in October 2011," Noam Shalit said in his first public remarks after his son's release.
He thanked the Israeli public and government for their support, noting the helicopter which took him to his hometown of Mitzpeh Hila, northern Israel, flew two circles over the area so he could see the thousands who had arrived to welcome him.
"We experienced the rebirth of our son," he told an improvised news conference in Mitzpeh Hila. He said Shalit was held in "very tough conditions" in the first years of his captivity, but "especially in the last years, the treatment improved."
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