‘Brought back to life’: Family hails rescue of Israeli hostage from Hamas tunnel in Gaza

(CNN) — The family of the first Israeli hostage to have been reclaimed alive from inside Hamas’ sprawling tunnel network underneath Gaza have hailed his “unbelievable” rescue, saying it is as if he has been “brought back to life.”

Farhan Al-Qadi, 52, a Bedouin Israeli citizen from Rahat in southern Israel who had been held hostage since October 7, is “in a stable medical condition” after being rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza in a “complex operation,” an Israeli military spokesman told CNN Tuesday.

Israeli special forces, acting on intelligence, were combing a network of tunnels in southern Gaza when they found Al-Qadi, two Israeli military officials told CNN. Al-Qadi was alone, without his Hamas captors, when Israeli forces found him, one of the officials said.

Al-Qadi is the eighth hostage to be rescued alive in Gaza by the Israeli military since the beginning of the war, in four separate operations – but he is the first to have been reclaimed alive from inside Hamas’ tunnel network underneath Gaza, the IDF told CNN.

“He was dead and is now brought back to life,” Al-Qadi’s brother, Juma’a, told CNN after Al-Qadi met family members at the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, where he is being cared for following his rescue. He added that his brother had not expected to come back alive.

“It was all tears. Tears of joy. What matters is that we saw him,” Juma’a said during an interview in the Bedouin village of Tarabin, in Israel’s Negev desert. He added that his brother had told him earlier today that his one wish was to “see you (the family) and then die.”

A friend of Al-Qadi, Mazen Abu Siam described jubilant scenes and a “big celebration” at the hospital, where “hundreds of friends and relatives” had arrived to visit the former hostage.

Al-Qadi was discharged from hospital on Wednesday afternoon, the Soroka Medical Center said. In a press briefing, Al-Qadi expressed his gratitude to the soldiers who rescued him and the medical team at Soroka, the same hospital where he was born. Already making use of his new freedom, he said “I got shawarma at 2 a.m.”

Family members told CNN he is expected to return to Tarabin on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening, his brothers and 11 children, along with their cousins and neighbors, were busy putting up tents, chairs and lights ahead of his return to the village.

In the closed women’s quarters of the village, Al-Qadi’s mother was awaiting her son’s return. Alya El-Sanae said that at first, her family hid the painful truth behind her son’s disappearance, telling her he was traveling. A few months after the October 7 attacks, she was told her son was held by Hamas in Gaza. Today, news of his release felt “unbelievable.”

“My heart flew with joy,” El-Sanae told CNN.

‘It is hard for him to erase the things he saw’

Juma’a said that his brother had been shot in the leg and kidnapped on October 7, during an attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Juma’a added that his brother’s leg appeared poorly treated and that he was operated on without anesthesia, “as one does with animals.”

The 11 months Al-Qadi spent in captivity would never leave him, Juma’a said.

“It is hard for him to erase the things he saw there,” Juma’a said, adding that he too would never fully recover from losing his brother for nearly a year.

Ata Abu Madighem, the former mayor of the Arab Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel, close to where Al-Qadi is from, said he had visited Al-Qadi in hospital. He said Al-Qadi had told him another hostage died next to him at the beginning of his captivity.

“He told me that captivity was brutal. Constant darkness, did not see the light of day. He was treated like the rest of the hostages, like an Israeli in every way,” he said.

Another one of Al-Qadi’s brothers, Abu Mohammad, suggested to CNN that his captors had fled when they heard Israeli troops approaching the tunnels, saying his brother had heard Hebrew voices and shouted out to communicate his whereabouts.

Asked by CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday if he believes Al-Qadi’s captors abandoned him, IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said that was “one of the options that are being looked at.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Al-Qadi, in a conversation released on video by his office. “Farhan, I am so happy to talk to you,” Netanyahu says in the video. I want you to know that we do not forget anyone, just as we did not forget you.”

“I’m happy too. I’ve been waiting for this moment,” the former hostage told the prime minister.

The Hostages Families Forum, which campaigns for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, celebrated the return of the father of 11.

“(His) return home is nothing short of miraculous,” it said. “However, we must remember: military operations alone cannot free the remaining 108 hostages, who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror.”

Protests demanding the Israeli government do more to secure the release of the remaining hostages have been going on for months. Al-Qadi’s friend Abu Siam said he had taken part in some of those protests and that he asked Al-Qadi when he visited him in hospital whether he was aware of the demonstrations.

“I asked him if he saw me on the roads and the streets calling to free him from the captivity and he told me his was disconnected from Israeli news,” Abu Siam told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said a “daring and courageous” operation led to Al-Qadi’s rescue. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “overjoyed” by the development.

‘Not a single drop of blood was shed’

The Bedouin community in Israel – a Muslim, semi-nomadic, and ethnically Arab group – is considered a subset of the country’s Arab population, which makes up about 20% of the total population.

While some identify as Bedouin Israelis, others see themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Unlike Jewish Israelis, Bedouins are not required to serve in the Israeli military, though some choose to volunteer, often serving in specialized units like the Gadsar 585, 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 single drop of blood was shed” during Al-Qadi’s rescue.

“Not a child, not a Palestinian, not a Jew or anyone shed blood for my brother,” he said.

Before Israel’s founding in 1948, the Negev was home to 92,000 Bedouins, but only 11,000 remained after the Arab-Israeli war of that year, according to Minority Rights Group. Those who stayed “were treated harshly, uprooted time and again and forced to live in reservations,” the international human rights organization said.

Today, Bedouin in the Negev still struggle to exercise basic human rights to water, shelter and education, according to Minority Rights Group, which blames Israeli authorities for withholding essential services from Bedouin villages it does not recognize. Tens of thousands of Bedouin live in such villages, where they face the threat of home demolition, eviction or forced displacement, the group estimates.

According to the National Library of Israel, there are almost 250,000 Bedouins, many of whom live in towns that are yet to receive recognition from the state, while others live in unincorporated villages.

Al-Qadi’s rescue means 104 hostages are being held from the October 7 attack, according to figures from the Israeli prime minister’s office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Of those, 34 are presumed dead.

Last week the bodies of six Israeli hostages were retrieved from Gaza during an overnight military operation in Khan Younis, Israeli authorities said.

Hopes of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, which would halt fighting in Gaza and see the return of people held by Hamas, have repeatedly been raised and dashed in recent months.

Negotiators are continuing to work on a deal, and have met with increasing intensity in recent weeks. Talks made progress over the weekend, according to a senior US official familiar with the discussions in Cairo, Egypt, where mediators discussed “final details” of a potential agreement.

An Israeli delegation will head to Doha on Wednesday for ceasefire talks, an Israeli official told CNN.

Clarification: This story has been updated to provide additional context on the current issues faced by the Bedouin community in Israel.

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