Middle East crisis live: Gaza hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi rescued in ‘complex operation’, says IDF

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Israeli forces found hostage 'by chance' in Gaza tunnel - report

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of Israel’s Bedouin minority who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, by chance during an operation to capture a Hamas tunnel network beneath southern Gaza, according to a report.

The New York Times, citing two senior Israeli officials, writes:

A team led by Flotilla 13, Israel’s version of the Navy SEALs, were combing the tunnels for signs of Hamas when, to the forces’ surprise, they found Mr [Alkadi] on his own, without guards, in a room roughly 25 yards underground, the officials said.

Alkadi, 52, is the eighth living hostage freed in a rescue operation and the first to be freed from a tunnel instead of a house, the report says. Unlike the other seven, he was freed without a fight, it said.

The IDF is still trying to understand why Alkadi was discovered on his own, seemingly abandoned by his captors, officials told the paper.

Israeli media reports suggested that Alkadi may have initially escaped from the tunnel where he was being held and made his own way to where Israeli forces were operating in Gaza.

According to one report, Alkadi was found alone inside a tunnel by IDF troops and it was unclear whether he had escaped or whether his captors had fled. Hamas claimed it had “released” him.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called for a three day humanitarian ceasefire to enable a polio vaccination drive as aid workers struggle to contain an outbreak in Gaza.

The spread of polio “threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation & malnourishment,” Borrell posted to X.

As my colleague Julian Borger reported, the UN has warned that without a humanitarian pause, a vaccination drive due to begin this weekend could fail to reach enough children to stop the spread of polio.

For the immunisation drive to be effective in containing the polio outbreak, the first of two rounds of vaccine must reach 90% of those babies and the rest of the 640,000 children in Gaza under the age of 10. This will need to be achieved quickly to break the transmission of the virus before it spreads or mutates.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cooperated in the delivery of more than 25,000 vials of vaccine and refrigeration equipment through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Sunday, but IDF commanders have yet to agree to a pause in the bombing to allow the immunisation effort to go ahead safely and effectively.

A rocket launched from Lebanon as part of the heavy exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel on Sunday was fired from near a position operated by international peacekeepers, according to the UN force.

On Sunday, in a significant escalation of a simmering cross-border conflict, Israel carried out airstrikes in Lebanon and Hezbollah launched a drone and rocket salvo against northern Israel.

The UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, told Reuters it had detected a “high number of air strikes and rocket launches in its area of operations” starting on Sunday morning.

“One such launch was detected from near one of our positions in Hanniyeh,” a spokesperson said, referring to a town in southern Lebanon approximately 10 km (6 miles) north of the border with Israel. They added:

We continually stress to everyone that using areas near our positions to launch attacks across the Blue Line or targeting that puts peacekeepers in danger is unacceptable and a violation of Resolution 1701.

The Blue Line is the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, where parts of the international border are disputed. The UN’s resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, tasks Unifil with ensuring that its area of operations “is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind”.

Several Israeli officials also condemned the comments on Monday by the extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, that he would build a synagogue at the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem, al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said “challenging the status quo” of al-Aqsa, also known as the Temple Mount, was “a dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible act”.

Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, said Ben-Gvri’s comments show that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has “lost control of his government”.

A statement from Netanyahu’s said “there is no change” to the current policy around al-Aqsa.

Extremist Israeli minister threatens to build synagogue at al-Aqsa mosque

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right extremist Israeli national security minister, has sparked outrage by saying that he would build a Jewish synagogue on al-Aqsa mosque compound, the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem.

Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and champion of the settler movement, told Israel’s army radio on Monday:

If I could do anything I wanted, I would put an Israeli flag on the site.

Al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, is a site holy to Muslims and Jews. It is highly sensitive site, where efforts by a faction of extremist Jewish settlers to pray there are seen as a violation by Muslim worshippers and observers, symbolising efforts to bring the mosque compound and the divided holy city of Jerusalem under total Israeli control.

Ben-Gvir has previously visited the site on multiple occasions. Here’s a clip from his visit in July:

Responding to his comments, Jordan’s foreign ministry said al-Aqsa and the holy sites “are a pure place of worship for Muslims”, adding that it was “preparing the necessary legal files to take action in international courts against the attacks on the holy sites.”

Saudi Arabia and Qatar also condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments, with Riyadh calling them “extremist and inflammatory”.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said was rescued from a tunnel in Gaza, “appears to be in stable and good condition”, Israeli media is reporting, citing the director of the Soroka medical center in Beersheba.

Alkadi arrived at the hospital about 3.30pm local time on Tuesday and is being hospitalised “for supervision, which I hope will be short”, Prof Shlomi Codish was quoted as saying.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released more images showing Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who the military said was rescued on Tuesday “in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip.”

The Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian has shared the IDF photographs:

As well as images released by the Israeli prime minister’s office:

IDF says it 'will not rest' until all hostages are recovered

The Israeli hostage rescued in Gaza on Tuesday was recovered by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from a tunnel in “a complex rescue operation”, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued in an underground tunnel, Hagari told a briefing.

Alkadi is in stable medical condition and has been transferred to a hospital for medical checks, he added.

The IDF spokesperson did not provide any details of the rescue operation, citing the security of the remaining hostages and Israeli forces. Hagari added:

We will not rest until we complete our mission to bring all our hostages back.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza, has welcomed reports that an Israeli man abducted by Hamas-led gunmen has been recovered by Israeli forces.

The group described the rescue of Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, as “wonderful news” and “a sign of light amongst the darkness for the families of the hostages” in a social media post.

Gaza polio vaccine rollout hindered by Israeli evacuation orders, says UN

The UN has said its ability to function in Gaza is being crippled by a flurry of Israeli evacuation orders, herding Palestinians into ever smaller and remote areas, days before a critical effort to contain a polio outbreak.

Aid workers warn that without a humanitarian pause, a vaccination drive due to begin this weekend could fail to reach enough children to stop the spread of the virus, which was detected there this month for the first time in 25 years.

A baby has already been partly paralysed by the disease, and health experts have warned it could spread rapidly given the terrible sanitation and overcrowding in camps for Gaza’s exhausted, displaced population.

“One thing for sure is that it’s almost impossible to lead a polio vaccination campaign at scale in an active combat zone,” said Jonathan Crickx, a spokesperson in the region for the UN child welfare agency, Unicef.

Faisal Ali

Jen Laerke, the spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office OCHA has given some details on an uptick in the number of evacuation orders Israel’s military has issued over the past month.

Speaking at a UN briefing, Laerke said Israel has issued three evacuation orders since Friday and 16 mass evacuation orders throughout this month. The three issued since Friday have affected 8,000 people in 19 neighbourhoods, Laerke said. “Only 11% of the territory of the Gaza Strip is not under evacuation orders,” he added.

Laerke expressed specific concern about the evacuation orders issued in the Deir-al-Balah area on Sunday, which he said affected 15 premises hosting UN and NGO aid workers, four UN warehouses, al-Aqsa hospital, two clinics, three wells, one water reservoir and a desalination plant.

“The sum of this is that it effectively upends a whole life saving humanitarian hub that was set up in Deir-al-Balah after its earlier evacuation from Rafah back in May,” he said.

The Israeli military has rescued one of the scores of people abducted in Hamas’ 7 October attack.

The military said Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued “in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip”. It did not provide further details.

The Times of Israel military correspondent Mannie Fabian has shared a photo of the former hostage on X.

Here is more from the Associated Press:

The 52-year-old is from Israel’s Arab Bedouin minority and was working as a guard at a packing factory in kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities that were attacked on 7 October. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.

Israel’s Channel 12 showed Alkadi’s family members sprinting through the hospital where he was brought after they received the news.

Hamas-led militants abducted 250 people in the 7 October attack, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed in excess of 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters.

It has displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.

Hamas is still holding around 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a ceasefire last November.

Israel has rescued a total of eight hostages, including in two operations that killed scores of Palestinians.

Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli air strikes and failed rescue attempts.

Israeli military says Gaza hostage rescued in complex operation

Israeli troops have rescued a hostage in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday.

It said Qaid Farhan Alkadi was recovered in “a complex rescue operation” and said his medical condition was normal, Reuters reported.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has said that cyberspace needed to be regulated, citing the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, Reuters reported.

“There need to be laws to regulate cyberspace. Everyone does it. Look at the French, they arrested this man and threatened him with 20 years in prison for breaching their laws,” Khamenei said.

Iran has some of the strictest internet controls in the world.

The day so far

The UN says it has had to halt the movement of aid and aid workers within Gaza on Monday due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, which had become a hub for its workers. A senior UN official had earlier said that UN operations had stopped completely within the Strip, but officials later clarified that operations “in situ” and “embedded” with local populations would continue.

At least 40,476 Palestinians have been killed and 93,647 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 18 people, including eight children. The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three children and their mother were killed in an airstrike late Monday in the Tufah neighbourhood of Gaza City. It said three other people were missing after the strike, AP reported.

The near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased somewhat after Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire without further escalation but Iran still poses a significant danger as it weighs a strike on Israel, America’s top general said. Air force Gen CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to Reuters after emerging from a three-day trip to the Middle East that saw him fly into Israel just hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, and Israel’s military struck Lebanon to thwart a larger attack.

Brown also cautioned that there was also the risk posed by Iran’s militant allies in places such as Iraq, Syria and Jordan who have attacked US troops as well as Yemen’s Houthis, who have targeted Red Sea shipping and even fired drones at Israel. “And do these others actually go off and do things on their own because they’re not satisfied – the Houthis in particular,” Brown said, calling the Shia group the “wild card.”

The new evacuation orders forced many families and patients to leave al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people had taken shelter, for fear of Israeli bombardments. Gaza’s health ministry called for the 100 patients inside the hospital, and the medical teams who remained to care for them, to be protected.

The UN’s World Food Programme warned that the food distribution centres and community kitchens it supports in Gaza are increasingly being disrupted by Israeli evacuation orders.

The Irish taoiseach has said he is “deeply disturbed” by the “widespread disruption” to aid operations in Gaza with Polio detect and reports overnight by the UN that 50,000 children born shortly before the war, or since, have not been immunised. Simon Harris is due to raise what he said are the “catastrophic” issues at a bilateral meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris this afternoon.

Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the occupied West Bank on Monday in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a militant operations centre in the camp, and that troops were separately blocking routes and conducting searches in the West Bank after reports of an abduction.

Israeli settlers shot dead one Palestinian and wounded three others in the occupied West Bank’s Bethlehem. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports on the settler raid, it added.

Some Israeli officials and media reacted with satisfaction on Monday after a long-expected missile attack by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement appeared to have been largely thwarted by pre-emptive Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Hezbollah had suffered a “crushing blow” from the Israeli strikes but that a longer lasting solution was still needed.

Benjamin Netanyahu faced a political backlash in Israel for the limited nature of Sunday’s airstrikes against Hezbollah, amid calls for a broader offensive in Lebanon. Some of the fiercest criticism came from the far-right wing of the prime minister’s own fractious coalition, which is also increasingly divided over the status of Jerusalem’s holiest site.

The United States continues to assess that the threat of attack against Israel by Iran and its proxy groups still exists, the Pentagon said on Monday, after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander. “I would point you to some of the public comments that have been made by Iranian leaders and others … we continue to assess that there is a threat of attack,” Pentagon spokesperson air force Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters.