A man abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel was rescued on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defence Forces.
The military said it rescued 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi in a “complex operation in the southern Gaza strip” but did not provide further details. Alkadi is in stable medical condition, the IDF said.
The Bedouin man had been working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities targeted in the attack more than 10 months ago that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.
Israel’s Channel 12 showed Alkadi’s family members sprinting through the hospital where he was brought after they received the news.
Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It has displaced 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.
Hamas is still holding about 110 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a ceasefire last November.
