CNN
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The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had freed a 52-year-old hostage held by Hamas since October 7 as part of a “complex operation” in the southern Gaza Strip.

Kaid Farhan Al-Qadi, an Israeli Bedouin from Rahat in southern Israel, was rescued by Israeli forces from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli military spokesman told CNN.

“His health condition is stable and he is being taken to a hospital for medical examination,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. “His family has been informed of the details and the IDF is accompanying them.”

The troops have identified al-Qadi’s whereabouts through a successful reconnaissance campaign, Hagari said, adding that Israel’s intelligence service and the hostage headquarters are working “day and night” to find information about the hostages still being held by Hamas.

“I cannot explain these feelings. It is better than being reborn,” Al-Qadi’s brother Khatem said in a video released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry outside the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. “We thank everyone and hope that Farhan is well and healthy. We are very happy.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Al-Qadi and praised the Israeli armed forces, his office said in a statement.

“We are working tirelessly to release all our hostages,” the statement said. “We are doing this primarily in two ways: negotiations and rescue operations. Both together require our military presence on the ground and constant military pressure.”

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

“Kaid’s return home is nothing short of a miracle,” it said. “However, we must not forget that military operations alone cannot free the remaining 108 hostages who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror.”

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

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

While some identify as Israeli Bedouin, others see themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Unlike Jewish Israelis, Bedouin are not required to serve in the Israeli army, although some volunteer and often serve in special units such as Gadsar 585, the so-called Bedouin battalion that operates in the Negev desert, where most Bedouin originate.

Before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, 92,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, but after the Arab-Israeli war that same year, only 11,000 remained, according to the Minority Rights Group. Those who remained were “harshly treated, repeatedly uprooted and forced to live in reservations,” the international human rights organization added.

According to the National Library of Israel, there are nearly 250,000 Bedouins. Many of them live in towns that have not yet been recognized by the state, while others live in unincorporated villages.

In the militant Hamas cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, around 250 people were taken hostage. Over 1,200 Israelis were killed.

According to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, 104 hostages from the October 7 attack have been held since Al-Qadi’s rescue. Thirty-four of them are presumed dead.

Hopes for a hostage-exchange ceasefire that would end fighting in Gaza and allow the return of people held by Hamas have been repeatedly raised and dashed in recent months.

Negotiators continue to work toward a deal and have been working with increasing intensity in recent weeks. Progress was made over the weekend, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions in Cairo, where mediators discussed “final details” of a potential agreement.

Last week, the bodies of six Israeli hostages were recovered from Gaza during a night military operation in Khan Younis, Israeli authorities said.