Thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with

me, Alex Collins. I'm taking you back to 2011 when Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was

released from captivity in Gaza. He was held for more than five years. I've been speaking

to David Maidan, an Israeli spy who negotiated the hugely controversial deal that secured

his release. I got into the car and saw Gilad Shalit in the back seat on the right. He

was very thin, he was pale, he was excited. I was afraid that something would happen to

him from all this excitement. I saw how his heart was beating. To calm him down, I put

both my hands on his knees. He didn't look away from me, he looked at me the whole time.

It's the morning of the 18th of October 2011, and David Maidan is the first Israeli to meet

Gilad Shalit, a man who hasn't known freedom for five years, three months, and 17 days.

Shalit was captured on the 25th of June 2006. Hamas militants and fighters from other Palestinian

factions raided Kareem Shalom and Israeli military post, which was just inside the Israeli border.

They threw hand grenades at a tank. Two of the four soldiers inside were killed,

and one was left unconscious. Shalit was dragged out of the tank and forced into a tunnel that led

to Gaza. Even though this wasn't the first capture of an Israeli soldier, it was still a moment

that shocked the nation. The Israeli army has rolled into southern Gaza in search of a kidnapped

comrade. Palestinian militants had been warned to expect a major military response,

unless an Israeli soldier abducted from an army post on Sunday was returned unharmed.

Maidan was out of the country when he heard the news. He knew it would be big for Israel and for

people he worked for. I wasn't in Israel. I was on a sad mission in a country where it was

very complex for me to operate. I remember hearing about the abduction and I tried to find out more,

but it was difficult to make phone calls or inquiries owing to the sensitive nature of where I was

...