PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (AFP) — The Israeli military said a hostage was rescued Tuesday from a Gaza tunnel, more than 10 months after the Israeli Bedouin man was seized during the Hamas attack that triggered a devastating war.

The Israeli military said forces had found Kaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, in a tunnel in southern Gaza “when he was alone,” despite a previous assessment that militants “and explosives” were there.

He is one of 251 people abducted by Palestinian militants during the 7 October attack on southern Israel, 104 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

At Israel’s Soroka Medical Center where Alkadi was taken to, hospital director Shlomi Kodesh told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he “appears to be in good condition.”

“But anyone who was in tunnels for such an extended period of time is prone to significant medical problems” and Alkadi was kept for “continued evaluation,” Kodesh told AFP.

A resident of Rahat, a predominantly Bedouin Arab town in southern Israel, Alkadi had been working as a guard at a warehouse in one of the areas militants stormed on 7 October, according to the military.

Hostage rescues are rare, with Alkadi being the eighth freed alive by Israeli forces since the military began its ground operations in the Gaza Strip on 27 October.

Scores were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel during a week-long truce in November — the only one in the war so far.

In a video issued by Netanyahu’s office after he spoke with Alkadi, the hawkish leader said “military presence on the ground and continuous military pressure on Hamas” are required to secure the captives’ release.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomed the release but stressed that “a negotiated deal is the only way” to ensure the return of other captives.

Talks aiming to secure a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, meanwhile, continued in Qatar, a United States official said. Neither Israel nor Hamas have confirmed their participation.

A key sticking point in negotiations has been Israel’s insistence on keeping control of a Gaza-Egypt border strip to stop Hamas from rearming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.

The civil defense agency in the Hamas-run territory said separate Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people in Gaza City and in two refugee camps in central and southern Gaza.