TEL AVIV — Israeli forces rescued a Bedouin man during an operation in Gaza, Israeli officials announced Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was taken captive during the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was freed from a vast underground tunnel in a "complex mission" by Israeli commandos acting on intelligence, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a news briefing Tuesday.
"He is alive and back home in Israel," Hagari said.
Alkadi, a father of 11 from south of Rahat, an Arab Bedouin city in the Southern District of Israel, was taken hostage during Hamas’ attacks as he was working in security at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen in southern Israel, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Tuesday.
"Suddenly, I heard someone speaking Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it," Alkadi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a phone call from his hospital room, according to a summary of the call released by the president’s office.
The full details of Alkadi's rescue were not immediately clear, with the IDF and the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, saying in a statement Tuesday that further details could not be published "due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security."
Alkadi was alone when the troops found him, a senior military official told NBC News.
Israeli officials said Alkadi was in stable medical condition. In a video shared by the IDF, Alkadi wears a tank top and smiles as he shakes hands with the commanding officer of the Shayetet 13, Israel's naval commando unit.
In a separate video Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry shared on X, relatives of Alkadi run to greet him at a medical facility.
Soroka University Medical Center said he was airlifted to the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
"He is fully conscious, and his overall condition is good. He has already met with a family member in a very emotional reunion," the medical center said in a statement, adding: "We ask to respect their privacy and dignity."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke with Alkadi over the phone, his office said in a statement.
"The Prime Minister congratulated Farhan and told him that the entire Israeli people are excited by his release," the statement said, adding that Netanyahu "clarified in the conversation that he will continue to do everything to return all our abductees home."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday's operation "joins a series of actions taken by the IDF that bring us closer to achieving the goals of this war." He added that "Israel is committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages home."
Netanyahu faces mounting pressure in Israel and around the world to strike a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would end fighting in Gaza and secure the release of hostages. The devastation in the Gaza Strip has drawn international condemnation and isolated Netanyahu on the international stage.
In a statement Tuesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of those held hostage in Gaza, said Alkadi's rescue was "nothing short of miraculous."
But, the forum said, "we must remember: military operations alone cannot free the remaining 108 hostages, who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror." The group called for a cease-fire deal that would free the hostages.
The efforts to negotiate a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas have ramped up, but so far they have failed to yield any publicly visible results.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council said the White House welcomed Alkadi's release.
"The United States remains determined to see all hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens, freed and reunited with their families," the spokesperson said. "We will continue to work tirelessly to finalize the ceasefire and hostage release deal through ongoing talks in Cairo and Doha."
More than 100 hostages are believed to remain in Hamas' captivity after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli officials. At least a third of those still in Gaza are believed to be dead.
At least 15 of the people killed on Oct. 7 were, like Alkadi, members of Israel's Bedouin Arab population. Bedouins are descendants of Arab nomads who roamed the desert for hundreds of years.
Of the 108 hostages the forum mentioned, at least four are people who are believed to have been held in Gaza since 2014. The rest are believed to have been taken hostage on Oct. 7.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Hamas released dozens of hostages during a temporary cease-fire in November, while Israeli forces freed four hostages, including Noa Argamani, 26, in a daring rescue operation in June that left a trail of death and destruction in its wake.
IDF troops mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages — Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka — in December during combat with Hamas in the Gaza district of Shijaiyah.
Paul Goldman reported from Tel Aviv, Chantal Da Silva from London and Daniel Arkin from New York City.
