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The Israeli military says commandos have rescued from an underground tunnel in Gaza a Bedouin Arab hostage who was kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October attack on Israel.
Kaid Farhan Elkadi, 52, was rescued in a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet domestic security service, according to a statement.
No further details could be published “due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security”, it said.
Mr Elkadi – the eighth hostage rescued by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza – is in a stable condition in hospital, where he is undergoing examinations.
Photographs released by the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba showed him speaking to members of his family while sitting in a hospital armchair.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that he managed to escape his captors before being rescued, and that the soldiers attempted to understand whether he had been held with other hostages.
Mr Elkadi’s brother, Hatam, told Haaretz that he was “a little thin”.
“We told him that everything is fine and that everyone is waiting for him outside,” he said.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. We hope that all hostages will get this moment, that they will all experience the same excitement and joy,” he added. “May all the hostages return, and may all the families feel this feeling.”
Mr Elkadi, a father of 11 and grandfather of one, is from a Bedouin village in the Rahat area of the Negev desert.
He worked for many years as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, close to the Israel-Gaza border, where he was abducted 10 months ago.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video announcement that he could not go into many details about the operation in which he was freed.
But he added that he could “share that Israeli commandos rescued [him] from an underground tunnel, following accurate intelligence”.
Footage released by the IDF showed Mr Elkadi sitting down, smiling and speaking to soldiers, including the commander of the 162nd Division, moments after his rescue.
A senior Israeli military official confirmed that troops were operating in “a complex underground system where hostages were suspected to be held”.
Mr Elkadi was alone in the tunnel when he was found by Israeli troops when he was rescued, the official added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had congratulated Mr Elkadi in a telephone call and told him that all Israelis were moved by the news.
“We are working relentlessly to return all of our hostages,” the statement quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying.
“We are doing this in two main ways: negotiations and rescue operations. The two of these together require our military presence on the ground, and constant military pressure.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described the rescue as “miraculous”.
But it stressed that “military operations alone cannot free the remaining hostages who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror”, and that “a negotiated deal is the only way forward”.
“We urgently call on the international community to maintain pressure on Hamas to accept the proposed deal and release all hostages.”
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 40,430 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 104 hostages still being held, including 34 who are presumed dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Indirect talks have continued in Cairo in recent days, but so far there has been no sign of a breakthrough over key sticking points. They include Mr Netanyahu’s demand that Israel keep troops along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas has rejected.
Two other Bedouin Arabs – Yousef Zyadna and his son, Hamza – are among the remaining hostages who are still alive, while the body of a third, Mhamad el-Atrash, is still being held by Hamas.
