The Israeli army announced on Tuesday, August 27, that it had rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin from southern Israel, who was being held hostage in the Gaza Strip during “a complex operation” in the south of the Palestinian territory.
“The army and Shin Bet,” Israel’s domestic intelligence service, “rescued hostage Qaid 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 army said in a statement. The IDF did not provide further details on the operation, citing “the safety of the hostages, military forces and national security.”
Qaid Farhan Alkadi was working as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, which borders the Gaza Strip, when he was abducted on October 7, according to the Hostages’ Families Forum. “His health condition is good and he has been transferred to an Israeli hospital,” said David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman.
104 hostages still held in Gaza
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 that day, 104 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 who have been declared dead by the army. “The other hostages cannot afford to wait for another miracle of this kind.” […] “A negotiated agreement is the only way forward,” the Hostage Families Forum said on Tuesday. “We call on the international community to maintain pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement and release all hostages,” its statement added.
As a new round of negotiations began Thursday in Cairo with the Israelis, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reported Monday “progress” in ongoing discussions on a truce accompanied by the release of hostages – taken to Gaza during the Hamas attack – in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. “We expect that these discussions […] “will continue for at least the next few days,” he said, assuring that a large attack carried out on Sunday against Israel by the Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, “had no consequences” on the discussions.
After more than ten months of war, Israel and Hamas are accusing each other of derailing negotiations for a truce. The Islamist movement is not taking part in the current talks, but a Hamas delegation met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Sunday, according to a Hamas official. The talks have stumbled over control of the “Philadelphia corridor,” a strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, and over Palestinian prisoners who could be exchanged for hostages.