CNN —
The family of the first Israeli hostage to be taken alive from the vast network of Hamas tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip has hailed the “incredible” rescue, saying the hostage has been “brought back to life”.
Farhan al-Qadi, 52, a Bedouin Israeli from Rahat in southern Israel who had been held hostage since October 7, was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza in a “complex operation” and is “in stable condition,” an Israeli military spokesman told CNN on Tuesday.
Two Israeli military officials told CNN that Israeli special forces were searching a network of tunnels in southern Gaza acting on intelligence when they found al-Qadi, who was not being held by Hamas and was alone when they found him, one of the officials said.
Al-Qadi is the eighth hostage to be recovered alive from four separate Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, but the first to be taken alive from inside the network of Hamas tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces told CNN.
“He was dead and then he came back to life,” al-Qadi’s brother, Jumaa, told CNN after meeting with his family at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he is being treated after his rescue, adding that he never expected his brother to come back alive.
“I couldn’t stop crying. Tears of joy. What matters is that we saw him,” Jumaa said in an interview in the Bedouin village of Tarabin in Israel’s Negev Desert. He added that his brother said today his only wish was “to see you (the family) and then die.”
Soroka Medical Center director Shlomi Kodish said on Tuesday that the former hostage “needs to be examined in a day or two more to see if he is still OK.” Meanwhile, Mazen Abu Siam, a friend of al-Qadi’s, said there were scenes of jubilation and “huge celebrations” at the hospital, with “hundreds of friends and relatives” rushing to visit the former hostage.
Family members told CNN that al-Qadi planned to return to the village of Tarabin as early as Wednesday. On Tuesday evening, his siblings and 11 of their children, along with cousins and neighbors, were busy setting up tents, chairs and lights in preparation for his return.
In the closed women’s area of the village, al-Qadi’s mother waited for her son’s return. Alia El Sanae said that at first the family hid the sad truth of her son’s disappearance, saying he was traveling. A few months after the October 7 attack, they were informed that her son was being held by Hamas in Gaza. Today, the news of his release felt “unbelievable.”
“My heart jumped for joy,” El Sanae told CNN.
Jumaa said his brother was shot in the leg and kidnapped on October 7 during a Hamas attack that Israeli authorities say killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Jumaa added that his brother’s leg appeared to have been roughly handled and that the operation was performed without anesthesia “like on animals.”
Jumaa said the memories of the 11 months Al-Qadi spent in captivity will never fade.
“It’s hard for him to forget what he saw there,” Jumaa said, adding that he too would never fully recover from the loss of his brother for almost a year.
Ata Abu Madighem, a former mayor of Rahat, an Arab Bedouin city in southern Israel near where al-Qadi grew up, said he visited him in hospital and that early in his captivity, al-Qadi told him another hostage had died next to him.
“He told me his captivity was brutal – always in darkness, never seeing the light of day. He was treated in every way like the other hostages, just like the Israelis,” he said.
Another of al-Qadi’s brothers, Abu Mohammed, suggested the suspects fled when they heard Israeli forces approaching the tunnel, and said his brother heard voices in Hebrew, shouting to indicate their location.
Asked by CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday whether he believed al-Qadi’s captors had abandoned him, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani said it was “one of the options under consideration.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Al-Qadi in a video released by his office. “It’s a great pleasure to speak with you, Farhan,” Netanyahu said in the video. “I want you to know that we have not forgotten anyone, just as we have not forgotten you.”
“I’m happy too. I’ve been waiting for this moment,” the former hostage told the prime minister.
The Hostage Families Forum, which campaigns for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, celebrated the return of the father of 11 children.
“(His) return home is nothing short of a miracle,” the statement said. “However, we must remember that a military operation alone will not be able to free the remaining 108 hostages, who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror.”
Protests calling on the Israeli government to do more to free the remaining hostages have been ongoing for months. Al-Qadi’s friend, Abu Siam, said he has attended some of those protests and visited him in the hospital, asking him if he knew about the demonstrations.
“I asked him if he had seen me on the roads and in the streets calling for his release from captivity, and he said he was not connected to the Israeli news,” Abu Siam told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said a “bold and courageous” operation led to al-Qadi’s rescue. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “delighted” by the developments.
The Bedouin community in Israel is a Muslim, semi-nomadic, ethnically Arab group that is considered part of the country’s Arab population, making up around 20% of the country’s Arab population.
Some identify as Bedouin Israelis, while others consider themselves Palestinian citizens of Israel. Unlike Jewish Israelis, Bedouins are not required to serve in the Israeli army, but some volunteer and many serve in specialized units such as Gadsar 585, also known as the Bedouin Battalion, which operates in the Negev Desert, where most Bedouins originate.
Al-Qadi’s brother, Juma’a, said the Bedouin community in Tarabin village was proud that “not a drop of blood was shed” in his rescue.
“No one, child, Palestinian or Jew, has shed blood for my brothers,” he said.
Before the creation of Israel in 1948, there were 92,000 Bedouins living in the Negev, according to minority rights groups, but after the Arab-Israeli war that year only 11,000 remained. Those who remain “have been treated harshly, repeatedly forced to leave their homes and forced to live in reservations,” the international rights group added.
According to the National Library of Israel, there are about 250,000 Bedouins, many of whom live in towns not yet recognized by the state, and others in unincorporated villages.
Al-Qadi’s rescue brings the number of hostages held in the October 7 attack to 104, of whom 34 are believed to have been killed, according to figures from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Forum of Families of Missing Hostages and Others.
Israeli authorities announced last week that the bodies of six Israeli hostages had been rescued from Gaza during a nighttime military operation in Khan Yunis.
Hopes of a ceasefire agreement to stop the fighting in Gaza and free hostages that would lead to the return of those held by Hamas have been repeatedly raised and dashed in recent months.
Negotiators have been working toward a deal, with talks growing more tense in recent weeks. A senior U.S. official familiar with the talks in Cairo said the talks made progress over the weekend, with mediators discussing “final details” of a proposed agreement.
An Israeli delegation is due to travel to Doha on Wednesday for ceasefire talks, an Israeli official told CNN.
