Israel launched major raids across the occupied West Bank
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00:00For more on this story, we can go across to Iris Mackler standing by in Jerusalem.
00:04Iris, good afternoon. What do we know about this raid and who was targeted?
00:09The targets were Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. Israel says there's been an
00:14upsurge of particularly the use of explosive IEDs, that's roadside bombs. There was, as you know,
00:23an attempted large attack with a bomb in Tel Aviv last week when Antony Blinken was there.
00:30The bomb went off but it wasn't successful, it went off too early. Nevertheless, what the Israeli
00:36military is saying is it's looking at the intentions of these militants and just because
00:41that attack wasn't successful doesn't mean that Israel does not have to be prepared. That's the
00:46military line. They've gone in huge hundreds of soldiers and we've seen attacks from the areas
00:54is reminiscent of the second Intifada, that large, that massive, large, long-scale operation
01:02that took place back then more than 20 years ago now. We have heard from the Israeli military that
01:08they are planning something longer, not the usual going in one operation the last five hours,
01:1410 hours is a long operation and out. No, they're going to go in and actually clean out,
01:20to use their words, the militants who are planting the bombs. Two important things to
01:24say about this. One is there has been an upsurge of violence from Jewish settlers in the region too
01:31over this last little while. There hasn't been a massive Israeli military response to that. I think
01:37that's very important to say. We have also heard from Israel's foreign minister with the suggestion
01:44that perhaps the civilians would leave the area, similar to what's being done in Gaza. However,
01:49the Israeli military has not adopted that. People can leave if they wish to. It's not policy,
01:54but that's another interesting and worrying event or suggestion from a leading Israeli politician.
02:03Iris, yesterday we had an Israeli hostage who was rescued alive, a 52-year-old,
02:09Farhan al-Qadi. He has reportedly left hospital after he passed the necessary medical checks.
02:18Are we getting more details on that rescue operation? Is he the first
02:23hostage to be rescued from a tunnel alive? Yes, he is the first hostage to be rescued from a
02:29tunnel alive. We have heard more details from him. He was clapped out of the hospital today
02:35by all the doctors and the military who rescued him. He was taken home. Joyous scenes surrounding
02:42his return. A true moment of joy for his family, for his community and for the whole of Israel
02:49who have been watching this hostage crisis since October 7. What we heard from him is that he was
02:55held with other hostages for a while, something like three months. Then he was separated from them
03:00and taken down into the tunnels. He said his lowest point was when another hostage died
03:08beside him. He speaks about that quite a bit. The happiest moment was when he saw that his
03:14captors were fleeing because they heard Israeli troops getting nearer to him. He describes great
03:20suffering in those tunnels. By the way, 45 metres underground, he didn't see light for more than
03:26six months. He couldn't tell night from day. His captors did let him pray, but he didn't know when
03:32was the time for the morning prayer and when was the time for the evening prayer. There was a
03:36suggestion that has been made that he was better treated because he was a Muslim, but his brother
03:41whom we've heard interviewed denies that and says that no, he was treated, they humiliated him and
03:47I'm quoting, they treated him like a dog. So no special treatment for him. He speaks about
03:54the treatment of the other hostages too. He spoke to Israel's prime minister, he spoke to Israel's
03:59president and both times he said people are suffering, they're suffering greatly underground,
04:04you must make every effort to rescue them as well. One thing about the rescue, it seems
04:10to have been accidental. Israeli soldiers were working in those tunnels and they stumbled
04:17upon him. That is an interesting thing because that relies on luck and coincidence and the story
04:23of how they got him out. We can't tell it all because there's a lot of censorship, military
04:27censorship, but what it shows you is that this wasn't planned. It was executed by finding him by
04:34accident and what the relatives of the remaining hostages say is you can't rely on luck and
04:40coincidence if you want to rescue alive some of the remaining 108 hostages who are still being
04:46held inside the Gaza Strip. Indeed. Iris, thank you very much for that. Iris Mackler reporting there for us from Jerusalem.