Israeli security forces have rescued a male hostage who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 and taken to Gaza.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old Muslim Israeli from the Bedouin town of Rahat, was freed in a “complex” special forces operation in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet — the country’s internal intelligence agency — said in a statement on Tuesday.
Alkadi is in a stable condition and is being transferred to hospital for checks, they said.
Alkadi, a father of 11, was rescued from a tunnel, according to IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari. It is the first time Israel has rescued a live hostage from an underground tunnel, Kan News, a state broadcaster, reported.
Hamas built a massive tunnel network that it’s used to hide hostages and thwart Israel’s attacks.
The war in Gaza started after Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, sent fighters into southern Israel. They killed 1,200 and took around 250 hostage. Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Hagari said 108 hostages are still held in Gaza. Israeli officials have said that, of those, 40 or so are probably dead.
Most of those freed were released during a week-long cease-fire — the only one so far — that ended on Dec. 1.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from families of hostages and Israelis more generally so to ensure the remaining captives are released.
Talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, over a phased cessation of hostilities have been going on for months.
The two sides are divided over several issues. They are yet to agree how many hostages will be released from Gaza in the first stage of a deal, as well as how which Palestinians can be freed from Israeli jails.
In addition, Hamas wants any truce to end the war, while Israel says it must retain the right to restart fighting and achieve its aim of destroying the group.
In recent weeks, a new sticking point’s emerged over the so-called Philadelphi corridor. Israel wants to retain troops in that strip, which runs along the Egypt-Gaza border, to prevent weapons smuggling from the Arab state. Hamas says Israeli forces must retreat from the corridor.
Senior Israeli negotiators, including David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, were in Cairo in recent days, along with U.S. President Joe Biden’s main envoy for Middle East, Brett McGurk to try to move the negotiations forward.
“We are working relentlessly to return all of our hostages,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday after speaking with Alkadi. “We are doing this in two main ways: through negotiations and rescue operations. Both ways require our military presence in the field, and unceasing military pressure on Hamas.”
Biden is using his last months in office to try to end the conflict, which has caused huge political divisions globally, including in the U.S. It’s also roiled the wider Middle East.
On Sunday, Israel launched preemptive strikes that took out thousands of missile launchers belonging to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group that’s been exchanging fire with Israel since October in solidarity with Hamas. Hezbollah still fired more than 200 projectiles at Israel, though they caused limited damage. One soldier was killed in Israel and at least three people were reported as being killed in Lebanon.
Tensions have deescalated since then, but Israel remains on high-alert for another major attack from Hezbollah and its main sponsor, Iran.
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