TEL NOF AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit returned to Israel Tuesday morning after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip, gaunt and frail-looking but apparently healthy.

Shalit, now 25, was 19 years old when he was seized by Hamas militants who had tunneled under the border between Gaza and Israel. The campaign to free him drew support from across Israel, even as many in the nation expressed anguish over the realization that any deal would include the release of hundreds of Palestinians convicted of planning or carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians.

“Gilad Shalit has returned to his country, his homeland and his family,” Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli army spokesman, said after the young soldier’s release. “For over five years we have been . . . with Gilad Shalit. Today, Gilad Shalit is with us.”

Shalit was taken by Hamas officials from Gaza into Egypt, then turned over to Israeli officials and taken across the border. He was examined by doctors and given a chance to speak to relatives by telephone; at some point, he changed out of the plaid shirt he had been wearing and into an Israeli army uniform, which hung loosely on his thin frame.