After more than 300 days in Hamas captivity, a frail and malnourished Farhan Al-Qadi sat in a large tent set up by his family and friends in the Negev desert, where loved ones came by to welcome him home on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am well,\u201d Al-Qadi told reporters, adding that he wishes \u201cthat the war ends for all Palestinian and Israeli families.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI know that there are negotiations in Cairo,\u201d he said regarding ongoing discussions on a proposed ceasefire-for-hostages deal aimed at halting the fighting. \u201cI wish to God that this is all resolved.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Al-Qadi is the eighth hostage to be rescued alive in Gaza by the Israeli military since the beginning of the war \u2013 but he is the first to have been reclaimed alive from inside Hamas\u2019 tunnel network underneath Gaza <\/p>\n
Al-Qadi sat at the center of long rows of plastic chairs, where visitors greeted him with long embraces and kisses on the cheek in a gathering near Tarabin \u2013 one of Israel\u2019s many unrecognized Bedouin villages. <\/p>\n
With limited power and water services, the village is about 20 miles from the Gaza Strip and is not protected by Israel\u2019s Iron Dome defense system. The closest city is Rahat, which is the largest Arab Bedouin city in Israel. <\/p>\n
The Bedouin community \u2013 a Muslim, semi-nomadic, and ethnically Arab group \u2013 is considered a subset of Israel\u2019s Arab population, which makes up about 20% of the total population. <\/p>\n
While some identify as Bedouin Israelis, others see themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Unlike Jewish Israelis, Bedouins are not required to serve in the Israeli military, though some choose to volunteer, often serving in specialized units like the Gadsar 585, known as the Bedouin battalion, which operates in the Negev desert, where most Bedouins originate. <\/p>\n
Fayez Sohaiban, Al-Qadi\u2019s relative and the former mayor of Rahat city, said the former hostage had lived in captivity not knowing what his fate would be the next day, and food \u201cwas almost nonexistent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al-Qadi was working as a security guard in Kibbutz Magen when he was taken 11 months ago. <\/p>\n
He told reporters on Wednesday that he spent a lot of his time in a tunnel, adding that he did not meet other hostages during his time in Gaza. \u201cNo one, no. Not once,\u201d Al-Qadi said. His brother, Juma\u2019a Al-Qadi, said he was \u201cisolated alone\u201d the entire time. <\/p>\n
Ali El-Ziyadne, whose brother and nephew were also kidnapped on October 7 and remain in Gaza, joined the Bedouin community to welcome Al-Qadi home. His brother, Youssef Ziyadne, and nephew, Hamza Ziyadne, have been held hostage by Hamas for 11 months, he said. <\/p>\n
El-Ziyadne asked about his brother and nephew when he met Al-Qadi, but the former hostage did not see them, he said. <\/p>\n
Before Israel\u2019s founding in 1948, the Negev was home to 92,000 Bedouins, but only 11,000 remained after the Arab-Israeli war of that year, according to Minority Rights Group. Those who stayed are \u201ctreated harshly, uprooted time and again and forced to live in reservations,\u201d the international human rights organization added. <\/p>\n
According to the National Library of Israel, there are almost 250,000 Bedouins, many of whom live in towns that are yet to receive recognition from the state, while others live in unincorporated villages. <\/p>\n
Al-Qadi\u2019s rescue means there are now 103 hostages from the October 7 attack being held in Gaza, according to figures from the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Last week the bodies of six Israeli hostages were retrieved from Gaza during an overnight military operation in Khan Younis, Israeli authorities said. <\/p>\n
Hopes of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, which would halt fighting in Gaza and see the return of people held by Hamas, have repeatedly been raised and dashed in recent months. <\/p>\n
Negotiators are continuing to work on a deal, and have met with increasing intensity in recent weeks. Talks made progress over the weekend, according to a senior US official familiar with the discussions in Cairo, Egypt, where mediators discussed \u201cfinal details\u201d of a potential agreement. An Israeli delegation is expected to head to Doha on Wednesday for ceasefire talks. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After more than 300 days in Hamas captivity, a frail and malnourished Farhan Al-Qadi sat in a large tent set up by his family and friends in the Negev desert, where loved ones came by to welcome him home on Wednesday. \u201cI am well,\u201d Al-Qadi told reporters, adding that he wishes \u201cthat the war ends for all Palestinian and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}