Photo: Menahem Kahana Agence France-Presse Relatives of Kaid Farhan Alkadi, including his children, wait to find him, Tuesday, in front of Soroka Hospital in Beersheva.
Agence France-Presse in Jerusalem
Published at 8:55 Updated at 10:45
- Middle East
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The Israeli military announced Tuesday that it had rescued Kaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin from southern Israel who was being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, in “a complex operation” in the southern Palestinian territory.
“The military and the Shin Bet,” Israel’s domestic intelligence service, “rescued hostage Kaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, from Rahat,” a Bedouin town in the Negev desert, “who was kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7,” the military said in a statement.
The military did not provide further details on the operation, citing “the safety of the hostages, military forces and national security.”
Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a news briefing that Alkadi was found in “an underground tunnel.”
He insisted he would not provide further details “for security reasons” and declined to answer questions about whether Alkadi had been held in the tunnel with other hostages.
A week ago, six hostage bodies were found in the same tunnel.
Kaid Farhan Alkadi, a father of 11, was working as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, which borders the Gaza Strip, when he was abducted on October 7 during the Hamas attack in Israel that sparked the war, according to the Israeli Families Forum. hostages.
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Agreement: “only way forward”
Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, which took in the former hostage, said in a statement “that his health was good” and that he had met his family.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Mr. Alkadi, according to his office.
He also said that Israel was conducting “negotiations and rescue operations” in order to free all the hostages.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hailed the “successful rescue” and called their release “a happy moment for the State of Israel and Israeli society,” according to a statement from his office.
Of the 251 people kidnapped on the day of the Hamas attack, 104 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 who have been declared dead by the army.
“The remaining hostages cannot afford to wait for another miracle of this kind […] a negotiated agreement is the only way forward,” the Hostages’ Families Forum said on Tuesday.
“We call on the international community to maintain pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement and release all the hostages,” its spokesperson added. communiqué.
Negotiations are underway between Israel and Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators to reach a ceasefire in Gaza with the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Hamas is not participating.
The war was triggered by the October 7 attack that killed 1,199 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
The Israeli reprisals left at least 40,476 dead in Gaza, according to the Hamas government's health ministry, and caused a humanitarian and health disaster in the besieged territory.