Rescued captive calls to ‘put an end’ to hostage saga as crowd cheers his return home

By: PDCC

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Rescued captive Farhan al-Qadi on Wednesday urged an end to the hostages’ ordeal Wednesday, amid celebrations as he returned to his home in the southern Bedouin village of Khirbet Karkur.

Earlier in the day, staffers cheered as al-Qadi was discharged from Beersheba’s Soroka Hospital, from which he had asked to be released so he could visit his ailing 90-year-old mother. Later, after he rode into Khirbet Karkur in a convoy of happily honking cars, al-Qadi met with elated crowds in a tent set up for the occasion.

Looking pale and taking in the spotlight, the 52-year-old told the gathered press that he feels “100 percent,” while urging the government to reach a deal to bring home all the hostages.

“The place I was in — I wouldn’t wish on anybody. So do everything — demonstrations, everything — to get the people home,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy.”

“I hope, I pray for an end to this,” he added, saying he had delivered the same message in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after returning to Israel.

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Al-Qadi was rescued Tuesday as troops combed a tunnel network in southern Gaza in search of hostages, the IDF said. The father of 11 was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border, where he worked as a security guard at a packaging plant.

His brother Jamal was quoted Wednesday by Channel 12 news as saying that the terrorists who kidnapped al-Qadi shot him in the leg when he refused to tell them where there were Jews.

The network said that in Gaza, al-Qadi’s wound was stitched with a needle and thread, without any anesthetic. Jamal said his brother was in solitary confinement without sunlight since December. Before that, according to Jamal, he was held with Thai agricultural workers who were abducted from the Gaza border communities.

According to the report, al-Qadi told IDF troops after being rescued and again at the hospital that they could not imagine the vast expanse of the tunnel system Hamas built below Gaza.

“You have no idea what Gaza looks like,” he was quoted as saying.

Al-Qadi also reportedly said he was unable to tell the time or date, except from occasional conversations with his captors. Sometime before he was rescued — anywhere between a day and a week, Channel 12 said — his captors left, leaving him alone in a room with some food.

Asked by the soldiers who rescued him how his hair and beard were so neat, al-Qadi reportedly said that when his captors cut their hair, he did, too.


Former hostage Farhan al-Qadi arrives at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, August 27, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Al-Qadi’s friend Mazen Abu Siam, who spent a few minutes with the rescued hostage, said he was very thin.

“He told us he was kept 50 meters [165 feet] underground and he wasn’t allowed to do anything, but they did allow him to pray,” Abu Siam said at the hospital, shortly before al-Qadi was released.

Al-Kadi’s son Saleh told the Ynet news site, “We have no life without dad.”

“His return to us was the most delightful surprise of [my] entire life,” Saleh said. “Now we’ll have a ball, and bring back to dad the happiness and good feelings that he lost over the past months.”


Released hostage Farhan al-Qadi, center, with sunglasses, prays alongside well-wishers after arriving home to the Bedouin village of Khirbet Karkur, near Rahat, southern Israel, August 28, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Al-Qadi was kidnapped when his youngest son was only a few weeks old. While in captivity, Al-Qadi also became a grandfather for the first time.

Former Rahat mayor Ata Abu Madighem told Channel 12 on Tuesday that Al-Qadi had witnessed the death of a fellow hostage with whom he had been held for two months. The information could not immediately be verified and there was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces or from the Hostage Families Forum.

“They treated him as an Israeli in every respect,” said Abu Madighem, adding that Al-Qadi “barely saw the sun” while a hostage.

It is believed that 104 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, 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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