Hamas hostage, 52, kidnapped from Israel on October 7 is rescued alive from Gaza tunnels

A Hamas hostage who was kidnapped from Israel on October 7 has been rescued alive from a tunnel during a “complex” IDF operation, along with more than 200 others.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi has been rescued from a terror tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said.

According to a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces, his medical condition is stable and he has been transferred to a hospital for medical examination.

The rescue was a rare moment of joy for Israelis amid months of grueling warfare. But it was also a painful reminder of the dozens of hostages who remain trapped despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire.

The 52-year-old man, from Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority, worked as a security guard at a packing plant in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities attacked on October 7. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin Israeli hostage who was abducted in the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, is greeted by a loved one after being rescued by Israeli forces at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel

Israel’s Channel 12 showed footage of Alkadi’s relatives running through the hospital where he was taken after hearing the news.

This comes after Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, who was held captive by Hamas for 245 days, revealed last week that every night she went to sleep she thought it would be “her last night alive”.

Hamas militants kidnapped about 250 people in the October 7 attack, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

According to local health officials, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive, although they would not say how many Palestinians were among them.

As a result, 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced from their homes and severe destruction has been caused in the besieged area.

Hamas still holds about 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed dead. Most of the rest were released in exchange for Palestinians captured by Israel during a ceasefire last November.

Israel has freed a total of eight hostages, including during two operations in which dozens of Palestinians were killed.

Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli forces accidentally killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

A person walks past a wall with posters of hostages, most of whom were abducted during the deadly Hamas attack on October 7 in Tel Aviv, Israel

A man walks at the site of the Nova festival, where partygoers were killed and abducted during the Hamas attack on October 7

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to negotiate a deal that would release the remaining hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire. Those talks are underway this week in Egypt, but there is no sign of a breakthrough.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been heavily criticized by the families of the hostages and much of the Israeli population for still failing to reach an agreement with Hamas on their return home.

Hamas hopes to exchange the hostages for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including leading militants.