KHIRBET KARKUR, Israel — An Israeli hostage rescued from Gaza returned to a hero's welcome tinged with a bitter reality: Much of the small village he calls home, Khirbet Karkur, is targeted for demolition.
Qaid Farhad Alkadi, 52, is one of Israel's roughly 300,000 Bedouin Arabs, a poor and traditionally nomadic minority that has a complicated relationship with the government and often faces discrimination. While they are Israeli citizens and some serve in the army, about a third of Bedouins, including Alkadi, live in villages the government considers illegal and wants to tear down.
Since November, about 70% of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to raze their homes because they were built without permits in a ''protected forest'' not zoned for housing, according to a lawyer representing them. Alkadi's family hasn't received a notice, but the looming mass displacement of this close-knit community has cast a pall on what has otherwise been a joyous 24 hours.
''It's so exciting, we didn't know if he'll come back alive or not,'' said Muhammad Abu Tailakh, the head of Khirbet Karkur's local council and a public health lecturer at Ben Gurion University in nearby Beersheba. ''But the good news is also a bit complicated, because of everything that's going on.''
Alkadi was greeted by dozens of well-wishers Wednesday — and a crush of media. He was released from the hospital and returned home a day after his dramatic rescue, which he recounted in appreciative phone calls with Israel's prime minister and president.
Neighbors and family erected a huge tent in his honor, and served tea and coffee from the early morning as they eagerly awaited his arrival. When the clean-shaven but gaunt Alkadi arrived — seemingly overwhelmed by the attention after 326 days in captivity, some of it an underground tunnel — he spoke with reporters and pleaded with Israeli leaders to free all the hostages.
''It does not matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them,'' said Alkadi, a father of 11 who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 while working as a security guard at a packing plant near the Gaza border.
''They also want to feel the joy,'' he said. ''I hope, I pray an end to this.''