Hostage rescued by IDF from tunnel in south Gaza after 10 months of Hamas captivity
Farhan al-Qadi, 52, Bedouin father of 11, was found by special forces in ‘brave and complex’ operation, army says, declining to reveal further details of the raid
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israeli hostage Farhan al-Qadi was safely rescued by IDF special forces from Hamas captivity in one of the terror group’s tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after more than 10 months in captivity, the military announced.
Al-Qadi, 52, was found inside a tunnel by commandos of the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit and troops of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the military said. The operation was led by the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command, the Shin Bet security agency, and the IDF’s 162nd Division.
The IDF said that further details could not immediately be published, “due to issues of the security of our hostages, the security of our forces, and the security of the state.”
Al-Qadi, 52, from a Bedouin community near the southern city of Rahat, was working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen on October 7. He was abducted by Hamas terrorists from an area near the nearby community of Mivtahim.
He has two wives and 11 children.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari described the operation as “brave and complex,” and based on precise intelligence.
“This morning, Shayetet 13 troops, the Yahalom unit, and the Shin Bet, rescued Farhan alive from a tunnel in southern Gaza,” he said in a press conference.
“The troops reached the area thanks to precise intelligence,” Hagari added.
Hagari denied rumors that al-Qadi managed to escape the tunnel in which he was held, saying that troops “rescued Farhan from underground, he met our forces underground.”
Al-Qadi was alone in the where the special forces located him. No other hostages or Hamas terrorists were alongside him, and troops did not face any resistance.
The IDF believed that the Hamas guards had fled the area in which he was being held, or al-Qadi managed to escape his captors, but remained inside the tunnel.
According to the IDF al-Qadi was not inside this tunnel for the entire ten months of captivity, and he was believed to have been moved around several times.
IDF troops questioned al-Qadi upon rescuing him, in the hopes that he would be able to provide information on other possible hostages in the area.
It was the fourth successful operation of its kind since October 7, but the first to have taken place underground. Previously rescued hostages had been held in buildings, not tunnels.
The first was the rescue of soldier Ori Megidish in late October. In February, hostages Fernando Marman and Louis Har were rescued from southern Gaza’s Rafah. In June, hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were rescued from central Gaza’s Nuseirat.
The June rescue was a large-scale operation that killed dozens of Hamas gunmen and civilians. During the raid, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, 36, of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit was killed.
Al-Qadi, who had been in Hamas captivity for more than ten months, was said to be in good health. After being rescued, he was flown by helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for additional checkups, where he met his relatives.
One of al-Qadi’s brothers told reporters outside Soroka that he was overjoyed.
“I can’t explain this feeling, it’s better even than the arrival of a new baby,” the brother said. “Thank God, we are thankful to everyone and we hope to see him soon healthy. We’re so happy, very happy to get this news.”
The Hostage Families Forum welcomed the rescue but stressed that a deal was necessary to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
“He endured 326 days in captivity,” said the main umbrella group for family members of the hostages in a statement. “[His] return home is nothing short of miraculous. However, we must remember: military operations alone cannot free the remaining 108 hostages,” the group added. “A negotiated deal is the only way forward.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the rescue was “part of the IDF’s daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip.”
“This operation joins a series of actions taken by the IDF that bring us closer to achieving the goals of this war. I would like to reiterate and emphasize: Israel is committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages home to Israel,” he said.
Following Tuesday’s rescue, 104 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. A weeklong truce in late November saw 105 civilians released from Hamas captivity and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror group’s onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, during which it killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 340.
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