"There is no greater mitzvah than redeeming captives," wrote the 12th century scholar Maimonides, one of the most influential rabbis of all times.

On October 9, in the most violent demonstrations in Egypt since the revolution, the Christian Coptic minority took to the streets to protest.

Twenty-four civilians and soldiers were killed on that day. But throughout the rioting and the bloody reprisals by the military, Major General Murad Muwafi, director of Egypt's feared Mukhabarat intelligence service remained closeted away.

As Israel celebrated Gilad Shalit's homecoming, his cousin, Hemda Garelick, a lecturer in London, spoke of her fears that Shalit could become a "tourist attraction" and urged people to treat him as a human being with emotions, not a political concept.

Throughout the past five years and four months, it has been evident that Aviva and Noam Shalit are intensely private individuals, forced into the public eye to campaign for their son's freedom.

Gilad Shalit's father Noam has describing meeting his son for the first time in more than five years.

He said: "Today, it feels like my son has been reborn."

Mr Shalit told the assembled press in his home town of Mitzpe Hila what it was like to bring his son home. "He came down the stairs, into the house, and through the door he left so long ago.