A former mayor of Rahat said rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi told him that a fellow captive died alongside him in Gaza, as details began to trickle out about his more than 10 months in Hamas captivity after he was rescued Tuesday by Israeli special forces.
The information could not immediately be verified and there was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces or from the Hostage Families Forum.
“He said that one of the hostages, who was with him for two months, died next to him,” Ata Abu Madighem said in comments to the press broadcast on Channel 12 news after meeting with the rescued hostage in the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
“This story is breaking his heart. He has many [terrible] memories. But ultimately, he is talking about being saved, rescued.”
Abu Madighem, speaking to Kan TV, said the hostage who died was a Jewish man.
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Abu Madighem said he was not allowed to give more details.
The ex-mayor also said al-Qadi told him he was not given any kind of special treatment as a Muslim by his captors. “They treated him as an Israeli in every respect,” the ex-mayor recounted. The whole time he was held hostage, “he barely saw the sun.”
Ata Abu Madighem speaks at a conference at Reichman University in Herzliya on January 5, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Al-Qadi, 52, from a Bedouin community near the southern city of Rahat, was working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, which is some three miles (5 kilometers) from the Gaza border, when he was abducted by Hamas terrorists from an area near the nearby community of Mivtahim.
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The news of his rescue by IDF troops sent shockwaves through the al-Qadi family, including his two wives and 11 children, with his brother and other relatives rushing to visit him after he was brought from Gaza to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
The hospital later said al-Qadi appeared to be in good health, though additional checkups would be needed.
When he was found by troops in a tunnel in southern Gaza, alone without captors or fellow hostages, al-Qadi became just the eighth hostage to be rescued alive since the start of the war, and the first to be found underground; military officials have made clear that recovering those remaining, including the remains of 34 hostages confirmed dead by the IDF, will likely require a swap agreement with the Hamas terror group.
Hostage Farhan al-Qadi meets with the commander of the 162nd Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, moments after being rescued from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, August 27, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Rahat Mayor Talal al-Kerawi, who visited al-Qadi at Soroka, said his rescue could give hope for others whose loved ones are in Gaza.
“We’re all happy; everyone in Israel is glad Farhan is home,” he said. “He spent a lot of time underground, but he is starting to see the light and the sun, and that gives him hope.”
The rescued hostage told al-Kernawi that he experienced “difficult conditions” during his 10.5 months of captivity, but told the mayor that “what’s important today is that I’m standing on my own two feet.”
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According to Hebrew media outlets, Al-Qadi told others that his captors fled as troops neared, but he was afraid to move due to concerns there could be booby traps.
He also reportedly said that he mostly ate bread in captivity, losing weight during the 326 days since he was taken hostage.
In a call with President Isaac Herzog, who earlier said he was “overjoyed” by the rescue, al-Qadi praised Israel and the IDF for extricating him but also told him that “people are suffering there, every minute… Do everything to bring people home.”
“People are suffering, suffering, you can’t imagine it,” he said.
He also recalled to Herzog the moment he was found.
“When I heard Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t believe it.”
Hostage Farhan al-Qadi arrives at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, August 27, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to an unsourced report by Channel 12 news, officials in Israel believe Hamas may have lost contact with some hostages, with the terror group currently working to understand what happened.
Earlier, military sources said al-Qadi was not discovered by Israeli special forces “by chance” as some reports described, although there was no preplanned operation to specifically rescue him.
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The IDF had been operating in an area of the southern Gaza Strip for several days, with the assumption that hostages could be held in the area. Shayetet 13 commandos and Shin Bet agents began to slowly search a tunnel complex in the area, where they then discovered al-Qadi.
According to the IDF al-Qadi was not inside this tunnel for the entire ten months of captivity, and he was believed to have been moved around several times.
Troops questioned al-Qadi upon rescuing him, in the hopes that he would be able to provide information on other possible hostages in the area.
Illustrative: This image released by the IDF on January 20, 2024, shows the inside of a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis where hostages were held. (Israel Defense Forces)
Following Tuesday’s rescue, 104 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. A weeklong truce in late November saw 105 civilians released from Hamas captivity and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014
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