Recently released Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit did not go on a hunger strike while he was a prisoner of Hamas, and his poor physical condition was the result of a lack of basic necessities during his captivity, Noam Shalit, the soldier's father, told reporters on Monday at the 2011 Eilat Journalists Conference. Gilad Shalit, now 25, was abducted by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006 and spent more than five years in Hamas captivity, until he was freed in October in a prisoner swap deal in which Hamas agreed to hand him over in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Noam Shalit told journalists during a conference in Eilat that his son had been in such poor physical condition that he had to be nourished intravenously upon his return to Israel. He also denied a recent report by Yedioth Aharonoth journalist Ronen Bergman, who wrote that Gilad had gone on a life-threatening hunger strike while in captivity, and that Hamas had imported four captors from outside Gaza to continuously guard the prisoner. "This [his poor physical condition] is the result of the conditions of captivity -- a lack of exposure to sunlight for years, for example," Shalit said. Later, when asked if the four Hamas guards had changed at all, Shalit humorously replied, "I do not know. Too bad you didn't invite Ronen Bergman to this conference, maybe his sources know more than I do." In a relaxed interview conducted before some 1,000 local and foreign journalists, Shalit described his son's current condition, saying "Gilad is fine. He is in much better condition now than he was when he first returned to us. He is recovering from his [shrapnel removal] surgery, undergoing treatment and is recovering from life in captivity in Gaza," Shalit said. He said that since his return, Gilad has "tried to catch up on all the things he loves. He's tried not to miss a single game in the National League or the Champions League in Europe." He also said Gilad had begun a military debriefing process, one which he hopes "will end soon." "Newspapers publish a lot of make-believe stories so that they can sell more, but I know nothing about these stories, about kidnappers wearing masks, and so on," Shalit said, adding that he did know that "at first [Gilad's captivity] was no picnic, but over time he was treated better." Mishal also asked Noam Shalit about the moment he was reunited with his son, during which it seemed that the embrace between them "was not warm." "My first encounter with [Gilad] was scheduled to be out of sight of cameras, but I diverted from the plan. He arrived with several bodyguards and officials such as the prime minister and defense minister, and therefore I did not feel free to fall all over him and break into tears. I gave him a long hug and said something in his ear. I wanted to bring him back to the room already so he could see his mother," Shalit replied. The soldier's father also addressed the media's role in helping to secure his son's release, saying, "If our story had stayed in Mitzpe Hila, our chances of seeing [Gilad] back here alive would have been really slim."
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