Israel Rescues Another Hostage Held by Hamas in Gaza

Israel said Tuesday it has rescued another of the 250 hostages Hamas militants captured in their shock attack on Israel last October.

The Israel Defense Forces said they found 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi during “a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip” as fighting rages on in the 10½-month war. The military said he had been rescued from a tunnel but gave no further details.

Alkadi was identified as part of Israel’s Arab Bedouin minority who was working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities attacked on October 7. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.

“He is in a stable medical condition and is being transferred for medical checks at a hospital," Israel said.

Israel's Channel 12 showed Alkadi's family members running through the hospital where he was brought after they received the news that he had been rescued.

A White House National Security Council spokesman said it welcomed Alkadi’s release and “remains determined to see all hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens, freed and reunited with their families.”

“We will continue to work tirelessly to finalize the cease-fire and hostage release deal through ongoing talks in Cairo and Doha,” the spokesman said in a statement sent to VOA.

Hamas-led militants abducted the hostages while killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials. Israel’s military says the death toll includes several thousand Hamas fighters.

Israel says Hamas is still holding about 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November.

Israel has rescued eight hostages, including in two operations that killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts.

The war is continuing as Israel and Hamas have been unable to reach a cease-fire to halt fighting and free the remaining hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel. The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to negotiate an end to the fighting and release of the hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced intense criticism from families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public for not yet reaching a deal with Hamas to bring them home.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday that working groups in Cairo are continuing to attempt to resolve outstanding issues.

Kirby said U.S. teams, which have worked along with Egyptian and Qatari officials to mediate the talks, continue to describe the discussions as “constructive.”

He said one issue being worked on is the exchange of hostages still held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, including the exact numbers of people on both sides and the timing of those exchanges under a potential agreement.

“We want to get it done as soon as possible,” Kirby said.

Meanwhile, the United States said Monday that Israel remains under the threat of attack from Iran and its proxies, days after Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander.

Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, told journalists, "I would point you to some of the public comments that have been made by Iranian leaders and others. ... We continue to assess that there is a threat of attack, and we ... remain well-postured to be able to support Israel's defense, as well as to protect our forces should they be attacked."

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown met Monday with Israeli Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant and Chief of General Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv, discussing both the Hezbollah situation and what is happening on the Gaza battlefield.

“The leaders reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership while also discussing the most recent engagement across the Israeli-Lebanese border and the need to de-escalate tensions to avoid a broader conflict,” Joint Staff spokesman Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey said in a statement.

In addition to Hezbollah’s promised response for the killing of one of its commanders, Iran has pledged to respond to the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Tehran.

Earlier Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Italian counterpart that Iran’s response “will be inevitable, precise and calculated,” and that Iran does not seek to escalate tensions.

Iran has blamed Israel for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, while Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

VOA’s Patsy Widakuswsara contributed to this report. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.