Creeping through Hamas’s tunnels, Israeli soldiers bumped into hostage Farhan Al-Qadi

Israeli commandos had been combing tunnels in Gaza for days when they made a startling discovery: an Israeli Bedouin who had been taken hostage on October 7, alone and unguarded.

Israeli commandos were combing tunnels in southern Gaza when they made a startling discovery: an Israeli Bedouin who had been taken hostage on October 7, alone and unguarded.

The troops had been exploring the tunnel complex for days, guided by intelligence that there could be militants or hostages there, yet wary of walking into an ambush, Israeli military officials said.

“We acted in a very careful and thorough way, because we knew we may meet terrorists, hostages or booby traps,” one of the officials said.

What they encountered instead was 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi, who had been a factory security guard at a kibbutz near Gaza when he was kidnapped by militants more than 10 months ago.

The hostage “met our forces underground,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a briefing on the events Tuesday.

The result was a rare hostage rescue and an even rarer one that didn’t involve a firefight in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

🚁WATCH the first moments of rescued hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi back on Israeli soil on his way to reunite with his family after 326 days in Hamas captivity. pic.twitter.com/XH0F6Qb8SV

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 27, 2024

Footage from Israeli Channel 12 showed a helicopter bringing him to the Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel and family members lining up outside the hospital waiting to see him. He emerged gaunt but smiling after 326 days in captivity and was in good medical condition, the hospital said, adding that he had an emotional reunion with his family.

“It’s like he’s been revived from the dead,” Hatem Al-Qadi, brother of the freed hostage, said in a live television interview with Israel’s state broadcaster.

He called for Israel’s government to strike a deal to free the rest of the hostages as soon as possible.

“We hope there will be a celebration not just by us, but all the families of hostages will experience this joy,” he said.

Al-Qadi, the eighth hostage to be freed by Israel’s military, is a Muslim citizen of Israel and father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat. He had been kidnapped from his workplace in Kibbutz Magen, said the Hostages Families Forum, an Israeli advocacy group. It was the first time the military had recovered a live hostage from a tunnel thus far in the war.

Additional Footage has been released from today’s Hostage Rescue Operation in the Southern Gaza Strip, during which Qaid Farhan al-Qadi is seen being transferred from a “Eitan” 8-Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier to a waiting UH-60 “Black Hawk” Helicopter. pic.twitter.com/1FfueCYfKh

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 27, 2024

His rescue from an apparently unguarded section of tunnel underscored the mystery around the whereabouts of the remaining hostages who are believed to be spread across the enclave.

Some who have been freed said they were held both above ground and underground, usually under tight guard. Released hostage Aviva Siegel told The Wall Street Journal that she was held in 13 different locations both above and below ground during her 51 days in Gaza.

The troops who found Al-Qadi alone were operating “in a complex underground system where hostages were suspected to be held,” according to a senior Israeli military official. They had prepared for the possibility that militants were in the tunnel and that it was rigged with explosives, he said. In December, Israeli troops mistakenly killed three hostages above ground who had escaped and were misidentified as militants.

Kaid Alkadi talks on the phone after arriving for a check-up at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Picture: AFP.

Hamas took around 250 people hostage on Oct. 7. The militant group had released 109 hostages as of the end of November, when a ceasefire agreement that included hostage-prisoner exchanges expired. Israel said 104 hostages taken by militants during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war remain in Gaza, including many dead.

Ata Abo Mdegm, former mayor of the city of Rahat, said the city was overjoyed by Al-Qadi’s return. The city still has two other hostages who remain in captivity, a father and a son.

Al-Qadi was debriefed by security forces shortly after his rescue, the military said.

Israel’s military initially described the rescue as a complex operation involving forces from Israel’s naval commandos, combat engineers, armoured corps and personnel from the Shin Bet internal security service. In the end, it seemed almost pedestrian compared with the firestorms that accompanied previous rescues.

Freed Israeli hostage Kaid Alkadi accompanied by soldiers as he disembarks from a military helicopter at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Picture; AFP.

Israeli commandos freed two hostages in Rafah in February, using explosives to breach a blast door before shooting their way into the second floor of a residential building to free two men who had been kidnapped from a nearby kibbutz. Meanwhile, air strikes set off a wave of explosions to cover the operation.

Another four hostages were rescued simultaneously from two different apartment blocks in Nuseirat in a daylight raid in June. The operatives arrived in a pair of trucks – one bearing a soap advertisement, the other laden with a mattress and furniture on the roof – then made their escape under heavy fire.

The bodies of a number of dead hostages have been recovered from tunnels. Israel has set the return of hostages still held in Gaza and the destruction of Hamas as its goals for the war. Israeli security officials say a ceasefire deal is needed to free most of those who are still being held and that time is running out.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant along with other security officials has pushed for a deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of some hostages. The latest round of talks has made little progress in bridging gaps between demands set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Netanyahu, who has been criticised by hostage families and his own security establishment for holding up a ceasefire deal, said he called Al-Qadi after the rescue and that he remains committed to freeing the remaining hostages.

“We do this in two main ways: through negotiations and rescue operations, ” Netanyahu said. “Both ways together require our military presence in the field and unceasing military pressure on Hamas.”

Dow Jones