A Hamas hostage kidnapped in Israel on October 7 was rescued alive from a tunnel during a “complex” operation by the Israel Defense Forces along with more than 200 others.
The army said Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued from a terror tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
An IDF statement added that he is in stable medical condition and has been transferred to a hospital for medical checks.
The rescue marked a rare moment of joy for Israelis amid months of grueling war, but also another painful reminder of the dozens of hostages still held captive despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire deal.
The 52-year-old belongs to Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority and worked as a guard at a packaging factory in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities that were attacked on October 7. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued alive from Gaza tunnels during a “complex” IDF operation
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, an Israeli Bedouin hostage who was kidnapped in the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, is greeted by a loved one after being rescued by Israeli forces at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel.
Israel’s Channel 12 showed Alkadi’s relatives running through the hospital where he was taken after receiving the news.
This comes after Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, who endured 245 days of Hamas captivity, revealed last week that every night she went to sleep she thought “it would be my last night alive.”
Hamas-led militants kidnapped around 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did not say how many were combatants.
It has displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused extensive destruction across the besieged territory.
Hamas is still holding about 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the remainder were released in exchange for Palestinians jailed by Israel during a ceasefire last November.
Israel has rescued a total of eight hostages, including two operations in which dozens of Palestinians were killed.
Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
A person walks past a wall displaying posters of hostages, most of whom were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
A man walks at the Nova festival site, where partygoers were killed and abducted during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to negotiate a deal under which the remaining hostages would be released in exchange for a lasting ceasefire. Those talks are continuing in Egypt this week, but there has been no sign of any breakthrough.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced intense criticism from the hostages’ families and much of the Israeli public for not yet reaching a deal with Hamas to bring them home.
Hamas hopes to obtain the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.