The Bedouin Whom the IDF Rescued From Hamas

Qaid Farhan Alkadi is the Bedouin Arab taken captive by Hamas on October 7, and on August 27 rescued from his calvary in Gaza by the IDF after enduring 326 days in captivity. Many of the media stories about his rescue did not mention that he is an Israeli Arab, leaving one to guess his identity from his name, which not everyone is able to do. More on what he had to say after his rescue by Jewish soldiers can be found here: “Rescued Israeli hostage ‘spoke about the darkness, not being able to see,’” by Joshua Marks, JNS, August 28, 2024:

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who was rescued from Gaza by Israeli forces on Tuesday after 326 days in Hamas captivity, was released from Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, relatives of the 52-year-old Muslim Israeli and father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev Desert have begun to share details regarding the brutal conditions he experienced since his abduction on Oct. 7.

“He spoke about the darkness, not being able to see. But, thank God, he’s back with us, alive—it made us all rejoice,” Alkadi’s cousin Fayez al-Sana told the New York Times after visiting him in the hospital.

For almost all of those 326 days, Alkadi lived in underground tunnels, in near-total darkness for eight of the ten months he was held. Conditions were brutal; food scarce; medical treatment either poor or nonexistent. One of his fellow captives died lying next to him.

Ata Abu Medigm, the former mayor of Rahat, told Ynet that Alkadi was held in near total darkness for months: “He told about a very brutal captivity, he hardly saw the sun for eight months. He would check if his eyes were functioning. He said that one of the abductees was with him for two months and died next to him.”

Dr. Mazen Abu Siam, a longtime friend and veterinarian, in a conversation with the Times called Hamas “devils” and said that Alkadi’s family had been in terrible anxiety for 10 months.

He had more harsh words for Hamas, listing the cases in which civilians were murdered on Oct. 7, including over 300 people at the Nova music festival: “They attacked everyone, even people dancing under the trees,” he said.

“I got permission to visit [Alkadi] inside [the hospital], I went in for two or three minutes. He’s fine, he’s healthy, he looks fine. A little pale. Thin compared to Oct. 7,” he said, according to Ynet. “Hope he will be released to the family tomorrow. He mentioned that he was in the tunnel for a long time, cut off from the outside world, was not connected to the Israeli media and did not know what was happening around him. I hope that all the families who have abductees in Gaza will feel what we felt on this day.”

Alkadi’s brother Juma’a told CNN that “he was dead and is now brought back to life,” and that “it was all tears. Tears of joy. What matters is that we saw him.”

Juma’a said that Alkadi was shot in the leg during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, and the wound was poorly treated during captivity. Alkadi had been operated on without anesthesia, “As one does with animals.”…

He was shot because he refused to tell Hamas members where Jews were hiding in the kibbutz where Alkadi worked as a security guard.

Israel’s army rescued a Muslim Israeli from Hamas’ terror dungeons. Keep that rescue in mind when you hear Israel being accused of committing “genocide” of Palestinian Arabs. IDF soldiers risked their lives to save an Israeli Arab. He, his family of eleven children, and a vast number of relatives, are all immensely grateful to the IDF, full of hatred for Hamas, and hoping for the rescue of the others, Jews and a handful of Muslim Arabs, too — still being held by Hamas, whom Alkadi’s longtime friend, the veterinarian Mazen Abu Siam, describes as “devils.”