Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called Elkadi to congratulate him and said the entire Israeli people were touched by the news.
The statement quoted Netanyahu as saying, “We are working tirelessly to return all the hostages.”
“We do this in two main ways: negotiations and rescue operations. To do both of these, we have to have troops on the ground and apply sustained military pressure.”
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum described the rescue as “miraculous.”
However, he stressed that “military operations alone cannot free the hostages who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror,” and that “negotiations are the only way forward.”
“We urgently call on the international community to pressure Hamas to accept the proposed deal and release all hostages.”
The Israeli military launched an operation to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7 that left about 1,200 people dead and 251 hostage.
More than 40,430 people have died in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Health Ministry.
Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to broker a ceasefire agreement that would see Hamas release the 104 hostages it is still holding (34 of whom are believed to be dead) in exchange for receiving Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Indirect talks have continued in Cairo in recent days, but so far there has been no breakthrough on key issues, including Netanyahu’s demand that Israel maintain troops along the Egyptian-Gaza border, a demand that Hamas has rejected.
Two other Bedouin Arabs, Yousef Ziadna and his son Hamza, are among the hostages still alive, while the body of a third, Mamad el-Atrash, is still being held by Hamas.
Another Bedouin, Hisham al-Sayed, has been held captive in Gaza since 2015.
