Israeli Rescue Operations of Hostages

 

"We're so excited to  hug him and see him and tell him that we're all here with him."

"I hope that every hostage will come home so the families can experience this happiness."

Faez Alkadi, Beersheba hospital, Israel

 

"[The rescue operation was part of the army's] daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip."

"[Israel is] committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages."

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant

 

"[Israeli Bedouin Qaid Farhan Alkadi was] rescued from an underground tunnel following accurate intelligence."

"[He had been held in a number of locations, including in tunnels, where in fact, he had been found wandering, no longer in custody of the Hamas operatives who had fled the incoming Israeli troops]."

IDF military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari

Qaid Farhan Alkadi was taken to the Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, Israel, where he was reunited with his family. Photograph: Government Press Office/Yossi Ifergan/Reuters

Gaunt but smiling with relieved happiness, Qaid Farhan Alkadi's release from captivity by Hamas has brought great happiness to his large extended family after having been held a captive for 326 days after he was abducted on October 7 by Hamas terrorists. He had been working at a packing factory as a guard, in Kibbutz Magen, a farming community in southern Israel adjacent the border with Gaza when it had come under attack. 

The man's rescue after such a long internment -- deprived of freedom, away from his roots and his family, seldom seeing the light of day, subsisting on a meagre diet and never knowing what the next ordeal he would be subjected to would be -- came as a great joyful relief to greater Israel, buoying their hopes for others of the abducted hostages to be brought back home to their families. Although few details have yet been released the military revealed that a "complex operation" in a tunnel led to Alkadi's release.

From the Bedouin town of Rahat, the 52-year-old Alkadi, father of 11 children by two wives, was one of eight members of the Bedouin minority abducted on October 7. One of eight hostages that had been rescued alive, Alkadi is the first to have been rescued from an underground tunnel, alive. After having been taken to a hospital in Beersheba for a physical examination, the jubilant man was declared in good condition, albeit gaunt. His family assembled at the hospital, welcoming him home.

After speaking by telephone with Mr. Alkadi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed the hope that Israeli rescue operations and negotiations would succeed in bringing the remaining hostages back home to their families in Israel. "Both ways together require our military presence in the field, and unceasing military pressure on Hamas", he stated.

Of the 250 people whom Hamas operatives abducted, after a November prisoner exchange for selected hostages had returned almost half to Israel, 108 hostages remained in Gaza, among them children, women, soldiers, the elderly. Israeli military intelligence has revealed the belief that of the total remaining in Gaza, over 40 are now dead. Aside from the corpses of Israelis that Hamas operatives had taken back to Gaza with them for the prospect of the bodies being used as future trade pawns.

Following an Israeli military recovery of the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza last week, IDF military spokesperson Rear Adm. Haggari spoke of work by the army in gathering more rescue operations intelligence, adding "we cannot bring everyone back through rescue operations alone."

 

Rescued hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi reunites with his family at Soroka Medical Center after over 300 days of captivity. (credit: SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER)

"I can’t explain the feeling. It’s like being born again. 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,"

"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."

Brother Hatem Alkadi