The hostage rescued from a Hamas tunnel by Israeli special forces this week spent most of his 11-month ordeal alone in complete darkness underground – and was so isolated he hardly knew about the ongoing war in the outside world.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was found alone without guards in a room 25 yards beneath Mahrat in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
He was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he told his family and friends that he was held in the tunnels for long periods of time, often in the dark and alone, except for the occasional guards, the New York Times reported.
“He spoke about the darkness, not being able to see,” Alkadi’s cousin, Fayez al-Sana, told the Times of the father of 11, who was abducted from southern Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Alkadi was also cut off from the radio and television, and had barely any idea about the Israel-Hamas war, his friend Dr. Mazen Abu Siam added.
Alkadi – who is from the Bedouin Arab community – lost a lot of weight during his captivity, but kept going thanks to his “strong personality and beliefs,” al-Sana said.
“He has a lot of resilience, and his faith in God was strong — those two things helped him carry it all,” he noted.
“But, thank God, he’s back with us, alive — it made us all rejoice.”
Alkadi was also visited at the hospital by Ata Abu Madighem, the former mayor of the Arab Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel, CNN said.
Another hostage next to Alkadi died at the beginning of his captivity, Madighem told the outlet.
“He told me that captivity was brutal. Constant darkness did not see the light of day. He was treated like the rest of the hostages, like an Israeli in every way,” he said.
Alkadi was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and returned to his village in Tarabin, in the Negev desert, CNN reported.
He is the first hostage to be rescued alive from Hamas’ tunnel network.
“He was dead and is now brought back to life,” Alkadi’s brother, Juma’a, told the outlet of his homecoming.
Alkadi’s mother Alya El-Sanae waited for her son in the village’s closed women’s area.
The family initially hid the truth of Alkadi’s disappearance from his elderly mother and told her he was just traveling, she explained to CNN.
“My heart flew with joy,” El-Sanae said of when she learned her son had been found alive.
Despite their happiness and relief, Alkadi’s family also realized that it “is hard for him to erase the things he saw [in Gaza],” Juma’a added.
The Tarabin villagers are proud that “not a single drop of blood was shed” during Alkadi’s rescue, the relieved brother said.
“Not a child, not a Palestinian, not a Jew or anyone shed blood for my brother,” he told the outlet.
Alkadi was taken by Hamas from Mivtahim, near where he worked as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, during the Oct. 7 attack, according to the Times of Israel.
He was found by chance as the Israeli military continued its effort to clear Hamas’ tunnel network underneath Gaza, officials said.
The elite 13th Fleet executed a “complex rescue operation” to return him safely to Israel, the IDF said.
The terrorists who guarded Alkadi may have fled because they heard the Israeli forces approaching, one of his brothers, Abu Mohammad, suggested to CNN.
Alkadi heard Hebrew voices getting closer and shouted out to communicate his whereabouts, Abu Mohammad added.
Israeli officials are still working to determine why exactly Alkadi was alone when he was found, but the idea that he was abandoned is “one of the options that are being looked at” IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told the outlet.
In the wake of their own relief, Alkadi’s loved ones called on the Israeli government to prioritize rescuing the remaining 104 hostages who are still in the terrorists’ clutches.
“We’ve been praying for 10 months for the freedom of all the hostages, including Farhan,” Fayez Abu Suheiban told the New York Times.
“We ask the government to make a deal as soon as possible to release all the captives and end this crazy war, which has taken many victims from both sides.”
