A year on, former Hamas captive Gilad Shalit keeps low profile
Israeli Gilad Shalit, at the centre of a high-profile prisoner exchange deal, is now a sports columnist and prefers to stay out of the spotlight
A year after emerging from Hamas captivity in Gaza, Gilad Shalit has hung up his gun and picked up a pen as the former captive soldier takes up a new life as a sports columnist for an Israeli newspaper.
But in stark contrast with the five years he spent in captivity in Gaza, when the young Israeli soldier's profile was very high, Shalit is now doing his utmost to steer clear of the public eye.
A year after his release on October 18, 2011, in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, Shalit made sure he was far from the media glare - on a private trip to the United States.
"He is trying to live his life, to make up for lost time, to go out with his friends and discover the world," his father Noam Shalit said.
Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants during a deadly cross-border raid in 2006 and held incommunicado in Gaza until he was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the ruling Hamas movement.
The controversial swap deal, which saw hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who were serving life for anti-Israeli attacks walk free, was claimed by both sides as a victory.