‘Miraculous’: hostage freed from unguarded tunnel in Gaza

Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi, a Bedouin from the southern Israeli town of Rahat, appeared to be ‘in good condition’.

Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi talks to relatives and friends after arriving for a checkup at the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheva. Picture: AFP

Israeli forces have rescued a hostage kidnapped by Hamas and held in Gaza for 10 months, after American-mediated talks to end the war and free all remaining captives foundered at the weekend.

The rescue of Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi, a Bedouin from the southern Israeli town of Rahat, came hours before a massive Israeli security operation in the West Bank killed at least 10 Palestinians.

Violence also raged on in the war that has ravaged the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million people at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis. The civil defence agency in the Hamas-run territory said separate Israeli strikes killed at least 15 ­people in Gaza City and in two refugee camps in central and southern Gaza.

Mr Al-Qadi, 52, was freed during a “complex operation” in southern Gaza and taken to hospital in a stable condition, according to Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the military. He said Mr Al-Qadi was rescued from a tunnel.

At Israel’s Soroka Medical Centre, where Mr Al-Qadi was taken, hospital director Shlomi Kodesh said he “appears to be in good condition”. “But anyone who was in tunnels for such an ­extended period of time is prone to significant medical problems”, and Mr Al-Qadi was kept for “continued evaluation”, Dr Kodesh said.

Two months ago Israeli soldiers freed four hostages in a raid on the central Gazan town of ­Nuseirat in which more than 200 Palestinians were killed, along with an Israeli commando.

Mr Al-Qadi is the eighth hostage to be rescued since the war began.

Yoav Gallant, the Defence Minister, said: “I would like to ­reiterate and emphasise: Israel is committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages home to Israel.”

Hamas kidnapped more than 250 Israelis, many of them children, and killed more than 1200 people, mostly civilians, in the terrorist attacks of October 7 – triggering a war in which much of Gaza has been destroyed, with more than 40,000 Palestinians killed, according to the Hamas-run health authorities. Mr Al-Qadi was working as a security guard when he was kidnapped.

Hamas freed dozens of hostages in November in a prisoner swap with Israel but more than 100 are still being held as bargaining chips. Israel believes more than 30 of them have died. The bodies of six were retrieved this month.

The Israeli government is under sustained pressure from the hostages’ relatives and opposition members to conclude a deal with Hamas that would grant a truce in exchange for the release of the hostages. Another round of talks was held over the weekend in Cairo, but ended without an ­agreement.

One Israeli group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, hailed the rescue of Mr Al-Qadi as “miraculous” but said that such operations were not enough.

“We must remember that military operations alone cannot free the remaining hostages, who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror,” it said. The group added 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.”

Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi with 162nd Division commander Brigadier General Itzik Cohen after his rescue at an undisclosed location in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message after speaking to Mr Al-Qadi that Israel was “working tirelessly to bring all our hostages back. We are doing this in two main ways: through negotiations and through rescue operations. Both approaches require our military presence on the ground and continuous military pressure on Hamas.”

Hamas has insisted that Israel withdraw all its forces from Gaza as part of the deal, and wants a commitment that the war will end. Israel, however, says it will reserve the right to continue the war until Hamas is defeated, and that it will keep troops along the border ­between Gaza and Egypt, and ­between northern and southern Gaza.

A spokesman for the Red Crescent said during ground raids and airstikes two Palestinians were killed in the city of Jenin, four others in a nearby village, and four more in a refugee camp near the town of Tubas. The Red Crescent’s Ahmed Jibril added that 15 others had been wounded.

The Israeli army said early on Wednesday it was carrying out an “operation to thwart terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarm” in the northern West Bank.

The operation came two days after Israel said it carried out an airstrike on the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority reported killed five people.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza, with more than 640 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers since Hamas’s October 7 attack, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures. At least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to ­Israeli officials.

THE TIMES