The Israeli army announced on Tuesday the rescue of an Israeli Arab hostage during a “complex operation” in the southern Gaza Strip.

The army said in a statement that the army and the Shin Bet General Security Service “rescued the Israeli Bedouin hostage Kayed Al-Qadi (52 years old), who was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen” during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

The army added that Kayed Al-Qadi is from the city of Rahat in the Negev in the south of the country

According to what was reported by the newspaper "The Times of Israel", the prisoner was liberated by members of the Israeli army belonging to the 13th Fleet Unit, 401st Brigade, Yalam and Shin Bet fighters, under the command of the 162nd Division, in a complex rescue operation in the south of the Gaza Strip.

 The army said that “more details cannot be published at this stage due to issues related to the security of the hostages, the security of its forces, and the security of the state, but it described the rescue operation as complex.”

He explained that the condition of the freed kidnapper is good, and he is being transferred to continue medical examinations at Soroka Hospital, where his family members were informed of the news.

On October 7, Kayed Al-Qadi was working as a guard in a warehouse in southern Israel when gunmen kidnapped him, according to the Hostage Families Forum

The Forum for Families of Israeli Hostages considered the news of Kayed Al-Qadi’s return to Israel “a point of light for the families of the kidnapped people and for the entire people in these difficult and tense days. We extend our thanks and appreciation to the security forces that participated in the process of returning him.”

The dilemma of the prisoners held by Hamas since the seventh of last October remains a complex issue, especially after the Israeli army announced, last Tuesday, that the bodies of 6 prisoners had been found in the Gaza Strip during an operation carried out in conjunction with internal intelligence.

The Israeli government estimates that 251 prisoners were detained in the attack, and insists on returning the prisoners in its own way even after the army announced that military action alone will not work.

Since October 7, 116 prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip have been released, after a week-long truce agreement last November led to the release of 81 women and children prisoners held by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli prisons, according to a newspaper. The American "Washington Post".

As for outside the framework of a deal, 24 foreign citizens, who do not hold Israeli citizenship, were released, and 11 prisoners, including two Americans, were released or rescued.

Israel said that it had recovered the bodies of 30 hostages from the Gaza Strip during the past months, which means, according to the latest figures, that there are 71 prisoners still alive in the Gaza Strip, while reports indicate that at least 64 prisoners have been killed.

However, it is not yet clear how many prisoners died in detention, and the ages, races and nationalities of those remaining in Gaza.

This comes as White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby confirmed on Monday that the ongoing negotiations in Cairo to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement on the hostages will continue at the working group level during the next few days to resolve some specific issues.

The months-long intermittent talks did not succeed in reaching an agreement to end the Israeli military campaign in Gaza or to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas in the movement’s October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the latest war in the Strip.

The main points of contention in the ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include the Israeli presence in the Philadelphia axis, a narrow strip 14.5 kilometers long along the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt