At an Israeli Hospital, Rescued Hostage Tells of His Ordeal

[Pelican Press 0]

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At an ******** Hospital, Rescued ******** Tells of His Ordeal

Farhan al-Qadi, the ******** rescued by ******** troops in an underground tunnel in Gaza on Tuesday, told his friends and relatives that he had been held in the dark for a long time, often alone save for his guards.

“He spoke about the darkness, not being able to see,” said Fayez al-Sana, a cousin who spoke with Mr. al-Qadi as he was recovering at Soroka Medical Center, in southern *******. “But, thank ****, he’s back with us, alive — it made us all rejoice.”

Mr. al-Qadi had lost a lot of weight but had “a strong personality” that kept him afloat in captivity, Mr. al-Sana said. “He has a lot of resilience, and his ****** in **** was strong — those two things helped him carry it all,” he said.

Clusters of Bedouin ***** friends, relatives and well-wishers lingered in the corridors of Soroka in the southern city of Beersheba, occasionally entering and exiting the closed-off ward in which Mr. al-Qadi was recuperating.

Some were longtime family friends, like Mazen Abu Siam, a local veterinarian. Others, like Ashraf Abu Mudaygham, were complete strangers who had come hoping to congratulate Mr. al-Qadi on his return home.

“May all the hostages return soon, and this war come to an end,” said Mr. Abu Mudaygham.

Mr. al-Qadi spent over 10 months in Gaza after he was abducted during the ******-led ******* on Oct. 7 from the ******** kibbutz where he worked.

“We’ve been praying for 10 months for the freedom of all the hostages, including Farhan,” said another relative, Fayez Abu Suheiban, who called on the ******** government to take swift action to free the remaining living and ***** hostages in Gaza.

“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,” Mr. Abu Suheiban said.

Dr. Abu Siam, the veterinarian, said Mr. al-Qadi told him that he had been mostly cut off from radio and television and had only a vague idea of what was going on in the outside world.

When he spoke about ******, which led the attacks in which Mr. al-Qadi was abducted, Dr. Abu Siam’s voice took on a harsh edge. “What they did can’t be called war,” he said.

Dr. Abu Siam ticked off a list of cases in which civilians were targeted on Oct. 7, including the killings of over 300 people at a rave in southern *******, saying, “They attacked everyone, even people dancing under the trees.”

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