A member of Israel’s Bedouin minority who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October last year has been reunited with his family amid conflicting accounts about his rescue from Gaza.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who was abducted in the Hamas attack while he had been working as a security guard at a packing factory on a kibbutz.
The Israel Defense Forces said that Alkadi was rescued from a tunnel “in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip”, without providing further details.
Later reports in some Israeli media, however, suggested that Alkadi may have initially escaped from the tunnel where he was being held and made his own way to where Israeli forces were operating in Gaza. Hamas claimed it had “released” him.
The operation was hailed by Israeli leaders, desperate for good news almost a year into a grinding campaign that has seen pressure mounting on the government to do more to bring over 100 hostages back home.
Alkadi is only the eighth hostage the Israeli military claims to have rescued during months of operations in Gaza, including during two operations that killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas has said several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts, while Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Israel’s Channel 12 showed Alkadi’s family sprinting through the hospital where he was brought after they received the news. Alkadi’s brother Hatem said they had seen him disembark from a helicopter and walk to the ambulance that took him to a nearby hospital for medical checks. Israeli media ran a photo of Alkadi appearing gaunt, but smiling with his family.
“I can’t explain the feeling. It’s like being born again,” said Hatem. “We say thank you to everyone.”
“We didn’t believe it at first. But when the army told us it was true, we were very excited and very happy,” Hatem added. “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.”
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the rescue operation was part of the army’s “daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip”, adding that Israel was “committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages”.
However, according to Israeli media accounts Alkadi had managed to escape the tunnel in which he was being held before being rescued by IDF forces. An Israeli military spokesperson did not confirm or deny the possibility that Alkadi had initially escaped. According to one report Alkadi was found alone inside a tunnel by IDF troops and it was unclear whether he had escaped or whether his captors had fled.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, later spoke by phone with Alkadi, telling him that “the whole nation of Israel is excited by his rescue”.
Hamas-led militants abducted about 250 people in the 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Israel believes there are still 108 hostages inside Gaza and that more than 40 of them are dead. Most of the rest were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Agencies contributed to this report
