A Bedouin Arab hostage rescued from an underground tunnel in Gaza said one of his fellow prisoners died alongside him during his captivity, a former Israeli official said.
Kaid Farhan Elkadi was rescued on Tuesday during a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said.
Mr Elkadi has not yet spoken publicly, but the former mayor of a town in southern Israel said the 52-year-old had been barely exposed to sunlight for eight months.
His cousin also said that Mr Elkadi was not treated differently in captivity despite the fact that he was Muslim.
Mr Elkadi was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel and is the eighth hostage freed by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza.
The father of eleven children is in stable condition in hospital, where he is being examined.
Mr Elkadi told his relatives “about difficult days, a very cruel captivity,” Ata Abu Medigam, a former mayor of the southern Israeli city of Rahat, told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
“He told me about one of the hostages who was held captive with him for two months and died next to him,” Mr Medigam said.
Mr Elkadi also became concerned about losing his vision, Mr Medigam added.
“He checked his eyes to see if they were still working and functioning. He put his fingers over his eyes to check his reflexes.”
According to the Israeli military, troops found Elkadi in a tunnel “when he was alone.”
In a statement, the military said no further details about the rescue operation could be released “due to the safety of our hostages, the safety of our troops and national security.”
However, some details have emerged about Elkadi’s time in captivity.
According to his cousin, Fadi Abu Sahiban, Mr Elkadi did not receive preferential treatment because he is Muslim.
“They didn’t make any concessions to him because he’s Muslim. He says they made him pray, that’s all they made him do,” he told Haaretz.
Mr. Elkadi had no way to communicate with the outside world and was constantly afraid of bombs falling over his head, his cousin said.
“He heard the IDF gunfire endlessly, he said his body was shaking,” Mr. Abu Sahiban said.
“Every day he was sure it was his last day, and not only because of his captors, but also because of the shelling by the army. He said that every day is a life-threatening situation.”
In a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the hospital, Mr Elkadi said: “I have been waiting for this moment. I swear to you,” adding: “There are other people waiting.”
Mr. Elkadi, the grandfather of one child, comes from a Bedouin village in the Rahat area of the Negev desert.
He worked for years as a guard at Kibbutz Magen, near the Israel-Gaza border, where he was kidnapped 10 months ago.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to its unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
More than 40,530 people have been killed since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire in which Hamas would release the 104 hostages it still holds (34 of whom are presumed dead) in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Indirect talks have continued in Cairo in recent days, but so far there has been no sign of a breakthrough on key sticking points. These include Mr. Netanyahu’s demand that Israel keep troops along the Gaza border with Egypt, which Hamas has rejected.
Two other Bedouin Arabs – Yousef Zyadna and his son, Hamza – are among the remaining hostages still alive, while the body of a third, Mhamad el-Atrash, is still being held by Hamas.
Another Bedouin, Hisham al-Sayedhas been imprisoned in Gaza since 2015.
