Israeli army says hostage rescued from Gaza
The Israeli military said it rescued an Israeli hostage in Gaza on Tuesday after a "complex operation", as the Israel-Hamas war, now in its 11th month, showed no signs of abating. Kaid Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the military said in a statement. "Kaid Alkadi was rescued... in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip," the military said. "He is in a stable medical condition and is being transferred for medical checks to a hospital." Alkadi is a resident of Rahat, a mainly Arab town, and on October 7 he had been working as a guard at a warehouse in southern Israel when he was seized by militants. "We are committed to seizing every opportunity to bring the hostages back to their homes," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on X. Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the rescue of Alkadi was "miraculous". "However, we must remember that military operations alone cannot free the remaining hostages who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror," it said, insisting only a ceasefire could ensure the return of other captives", it said adding that "a negotiated deal is the only way forward". On October 7, militants attacked southern Israeli communities in an unprecedented attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians. Militants also seized 251 people, 104 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military campaign since then has killed at least 40,476 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory. Most of the dead are women and children, according to UN rights office. Meanwhile, the United Nations said humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip has taken a serious blow after Israel ordered a new evacuation in the centre of the besieged territory. On Sunday the Israeli military ordered people to "evacuate immediately" a part of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, sparking a rapid exodus of civilians and displacing UN and NGO workers. (AFP)