Score another win for the IDF. In a "complex operation" earlier today, Israeli forces liberated an Arab Israeli civilian that Hamas has held hostage since the October 7 massacres. This time they had to go underground in Rafah to get him:

The IDF and the Shin Bet on Tuesday rescued Israeli-Bedoin hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who was held by Hamas since October 7, from Rafah. The operation was led by Division 162, Brigade 401, Yahalom anti-tunnel special forces, along with the Shayetet 13 naval commandos.

The hostage’s name is Kaid Farhan al-kaadi, age 52, from Rahat. Al-Kaadi is healthy and is undergoing further health checks at an unidentified hospital.

It is the fourth successful operation to rescue live Israeli hostages from Hamas, though there have been several successful operations finding and returning dozens of bodies of hostages killed by Hamas.

His family rushed to meet him at the hospital after his rescue, which can be seen in this Twitter video:

תיעוד: משפחתו של פרחאן קאיד שחולץ מעזה רצים לעברו בבית החולים סורוקה@ShaIsrael2 https://t.co/wSc3qP3UlQ pic.twitter.com/pWsm9wxfXq

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) August 27, 2024

According to his family and the hospital, al-Qadi is in good condition, although in the first pictures released looks somewhat emaciated:

The brother of freed hostage Qaid Farhan al-Qadi shares the first image of him from a hospital bed in the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

The selfie shows al-Qadi, 52, sitting in a chair in a hospital gown and smiling. He appears significantly thinner than images that circulated of him after he was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. ...

In a statement, the hospital says the rescued hostage underwent initial testing and is fully conscious and in overall good condition. The medical center says al-Qadi “has already met with his family members with great excitement. These are sensitive moments for the family and we ask people to protect their privacy.”

Al-Qadi worked as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen when Hamas terrorists abducted him on October 7. He comes from a Bedouin community, where he lived with his eleven children, the youngest of whom was six months old when he was kidnapped. Al-Qadi will also now get to meet his first grandchild, born while Hamas kept him hostage. He also got a call from Benjamin Netanyahu a few minutes ago, expressing the excitement that the whole nation feels over his liberation. 

So far, there aren't too many details of the operation other than the liberation of al-Qadi. It's unknown how many Hamas terrorists might have been engaged in this mission, but one has to imagine that the tunnel was defended to some extent, if for no other reason than to ensure the hostage's captivity. The IDF has not yet reported any losses of their forces, nor whether other hostage bodies may have been found. At this point, though, one would expect Hamas to have dispersed the hostages as much as possible to prevent a mass liberation by the IDF. 

Nor is it clear what kind of treatment al-Qasi got from his captors. Another freed hostage has begun talking about her captivity, however. Moran Stella told Israeli media that her captors constantly pressured her to convert to Islam, and conducted a campaign of psychological terror against her family:

Realizing that her captors were speaking with the hostage’s parents, hence the ‘abuha abuha’ comments by the terrorists earlier and money-related questions that followed Stella told N12, she reiterated to her captors, “I emphasized to him that moment that my father would give anything and everything for me.”

Stella then shared with N12 that when she returned from captivity in Gaza, she asked her father whether her captors demanded a ransom for her release, to which he replied “Yes.”

She further said it is still uncertain whether the communication between her captors was to extort money from her family, or part of a psychological torture the terrorists inflicted on her family, N12 noted in their report, with Stella stating, “It is a part of their mind games, they are not playing just with us, but also with our families,” she further emphasized, “it does not end in our death or kidnapping, they continue to torture and abuse our families.”

“Almost daily one of them would enter the room, saying ‘Would be better for you to be a Muslim woman,’ and once the terrorist sent one of his comrades to get a head covering to put on me, and show me what it means to be a Muslim woman,” Stella further shared with N12.

One can imagine that this strategy was not limited to Stella. It could offer more context to the passion that the hostage families exhibit in getting a deal done to release the rest of the captives; the motive is obvious, of course, regardless of whether the families are enduring similar psychological torture. They want their family members back, and that's totally understandable.

Let's hope that happens very soon -- and in this manner, with Hamas' ultimate defeat.