JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli special forces have recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip in “a complex rescue operation”, the military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7.
It said 52 year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable.
Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Alkadi had been rescued in an underground tunnel but gave no details of the operation, citing the security of the remaining hostages and Israeli forces.
“We will not rest until we complete our mission to bring all our hostages back,” he told a briefing.
The rescue was hailed by Israeli leaders, desperate for good news almost a year into a grinding campaign that has seen pressure mounting on the government to do more to bring over 100 hostages back home.
President Isaac Herzog said the rescue was “a moment of joy for the State of Israel and Israeli society as a whole”.
As the rescue was confirmed, Israeli television stations showed a military helicopter landing at a hospital as medical staff and ambulance stood by waiting to receive Alkadi.
He had been taken hostage in Kibbutz Magen, one of a string of communities around the Gaza Strip that were attacked by Hamas-led fighters on Oct. 7.
More than 250 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in the attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed.
Alkadi’s rescue leaves 108 Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza but around a third of these are known to have died, with the fate of the others unknown.
The operation, following the rescue of four Israeli hostages in June, comes as talks have continued to try to agree a halt to the fighting in Gaza and the return of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the campaign, which has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and displaced most of the 2.3 million population, leaving hundreds of thousands in makeshift shelters.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Alex Richardson and Jonathan Oatis)
