The Israeli military said commandos had rescued a Bedouin Arab hostage from an underground tunnel in Gaza during an attack on Israel on October 7.
Kaid Farhan Elkadi, 52, was rescued during a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet internal security service, a statement said.
No further details could be released “due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the safety of our troops, and national security,” the report said.
Mr Elkadi, the eighth hostage rescued by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza, is in stable condition in hospital, where he is undergoing tests.
Photos released by Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba show him sitting in a chair in the hospital and talking to family members.
His brother, Hatam, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he was “a little thin.”
“We told him everything is fine and that everyone is waiting for him outside,” he said.
“We have waited a long time for this moment. We hope that all the hostages get this moment, that they all feel the same excitement and joy,” he added. “May all the hostages return and may all the families feel this feeling.”
Mr Elkadi, a father of eleven children and grandfather of one, 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.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video message that he could not go into details about the operation that freed him.
But he added that he “could say that Israeli commandos rescued him from an underground tunnel, based on accurate intelligence.”
Footage released by the IDF shows Mr. Elkadi sitting, smiling and talking with soldiersincluding the commander of the 162nd Division, shortly after his rescue.
Haaretz reported that he managed to escape his captors before being rescued, and that soldiers were trying to determine whether he was being held with other hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had congratulated Elkadi by telephone and told him that all Israelis were moved by the news.
“We are working tirelessly to get all our hostages back,” Mr Netanyahu’s statement said.
“We do this in two ways: negotiations and rescue operations. These two together require our military presence on the ground and constant military pressure.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described the rescue as “miraculous”.
But it stressed that “military operations alone are not sufficient to free the remaining hostages who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror” and that “a negotiated deal is the only way forward”.
“We urge the international community to put pressure on Hamas to accept the proposed deal and release all hostages.”
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 40,430 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.
