Gilad Shalit was not tortured: captors
In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Defence Force, freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (2nd R) walks with Defence Minister Ehud Barak (L), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd, L) and IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz (R) at Tel Nof Airbase on October 18, 2011 in central Israel.
Gilad Shalit received better treatment than Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, Army Radio has quoted the commander of a Palestinian faction that kidnapped Shalit as saying Thursday.
Shalit was freed this week after being held captive for five years in Gaza by militants, in a deal that saw Israel agreeing to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
In exhange, Israel released 477 Palestinian prisoners.
(GlobalPost reports: Gilad Shalit, an Israeli captive of Hamas, is set free)
Meanwhile, representatives from Gaza's mental health program say in a video interview with Al Jazeera that more than 90 percent of Palestinian prisoners suffer from physical and psychological torture in Israeli prisons.
Zuhair Al-Qaisi, head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), meantime, reportedly said in an interview with the London based Arabic daily Al Hayat that Schalit's captors kept constant watch over his physical and mental health so that they could charge a high price for his release.
Haaretz quotes Qaisi as saying:
"He had access to radio and television. We took care of him, his physical and mental health. He was not given over to any emotional or physical torture. He was lightly injured in the course of his capture, and he received the necessary medical care and completely healed,"
He reportedly said that various Arab government officials had passed on messages from Israel that failure to release Shalit would result in serious consequences.
"We refused to respond to these threats," Qaisi reportedly said.
Qaisi said Shalit was handed over to Hamas after a deal was struck with the leaders of the PRC, because Hamas "had the capabilities and the locations which allowed them to keep the prisoner in a safe secret place."
The Palestinian National Authority on Thursday called on Egypt to do more to secure the release of older Palestinian prisoners in the second stage of a deal between Israel and Hamas.
"We are concerned that the second stage might be limited to prisoners whose sentences are about to complete," Eissa Qaraqe, minister of prisoners affairs, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
While Hamas chose the names of 477 prisoners freed in the first stage of the exchange, Israel is to reportedly decide the 550 detainees to be freed in the coming two months.
The United States expressed concerns about some of the 477 Palestinians Israel freed Tuesday because they killed or injured U.S. citizens, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Obama administration had, according to the official, "conveyed its concerns to the Israeli government, suggesting it did so at the 11th hour as Israel engineered the swap to free Sergeant Gilad Shalit."