The Israeli prime minister has wished Gilad Shalit well on his first birthday since he was freed.

It is nearly a year since Sergeant Shalit was brought back to Israel in a prisoner exchange, after more than five years as a captive of Hamas terrorists.

Nearly a year after IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was freed in a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, Israeli military leaders are hoping to draw lessons from his experience.

According to a report in Ha'aretz newspaper, the army is now training soldiers from elite units about what to expect should they be taken captive, using information given to them by Sergeant Shalit.

The Israeli soldier who was freed last October after more than five years of being a Hamas captive has visited the set of Homeland.

Gilad Shalit joined actors Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin in Jaffa where they were filming for the second series of the hit drama, which was inspired partly by the soldier's own story.

Young British Jews spending Pesach in Israel found themselves partying alongside Gilad Shalit two days after the former prisoner celebrated his first Seder with his family in six years.

Sergeant Shalit spent Monday evening at the Seret club in Tel Aviv, where he was joined by dozens of revellers from this country.

The soldier, who came home after five years as a prisoner of Hamas in Gaza jus

The father of the IDF soldier captured by Hamas and released five years later last October has given a controversial interview expressing a level of understanding of the terrorist groups' actions.

Noam Shalit, whose son Gilad was just 19 years old when he was kidnapped during a cross border raid, revealed his ambitions to become a Labour Party Knesset member in January.

If anyone is able to understand what is going through the head of released hostage Gilad Shilat, that man is Amos Levitov.

He was a prisoner of war in Egypt from 1970 until his release after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Levitov now lectures about the psychological consequences his own captivity had for him and he is one of the team helping Shalit to re-adjust to life as a free man in Israel.