sits in a room at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel.
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency / Jewish News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel — August 27, 2024 … Israeli-Arab hostage Farhan al-Qadi was safely rescued by IDF special forces from Hamas captivity in one of the terror group’s tunnels in Gaza on Tuesday after more than 10 months in captivity, the Israel Defense Forces announced.
Al-Qadi, 52, was found inside a tunnel by commandos of the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit and troops of the elite IDF Yahalom combat engineering unit. The sensitive, complex and brave 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.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today spoke with Farhan al-Qadi, who was rescued from being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
The Prime Minister congratulated al-Qadi and told him that the entire people of Israel was moved by his being freed.
Netanyahu made it clear that he would continue to do everything to return all of our hostages home. Prime Minister Netanyahu issued the following statement:
“Welcome home Farhan Qadi. I commend the IDF and the ISA for another successful rescue operation.
We are working relentlessly to return all of our hostages. We are doing this in two main ways: Negotiations and rescue operations. The two of these together require our military presence on the ground, and constant military pressure. We will continue to act until we return all of them home.”
Al-Qadi, from an Arab Bedouin community near the southern city of Rahat, was working as a security guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, which is some three miles from the Gaza border, on October 7. He was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from an area near the nearby community of Mivtahim.
