Police officers went into a home in Rahat looking for illegal guns and found a man chained to the floor. Over the weekend, Israel Police freed the man during an operation to locate and confiscate illegal weapons in the Negev city, The Jerusalem Post reports.

The man's leg was shackled to the floor of the home, according to the newspaper. Officers freed him on the spot and began working to uncover the circumstances surrounding his imprisonment. Police released a photo of the rescue dated October 25, 2026.

Preliminary findings indicate that he was chained up by his own family members, police said, allegedly because of his use of drugs, The Jerusalem Post reports. The man's brother, a Rahat resident, was arrested shortly afterward and taken to the Rahat police station for questioning.

The rescue came amid a wider police push against illegal weapons in Arab communities. Also on Sunday, police and Border Police officers found a large cache of weapons stolen from the IDF in Kalansuwa, a majority-Arab city in central Israel, and made two arrests, The Jerusalem Post reports. The operation was part of a larger initiative to reduce violent crime in the Arab sector, according to the newspaper. Two family members who were at the site during the raid were taken in for questioning, and police submitted all the seized weapons as potential evidence while the investigation continues.

Officers set out that weekend to take guns off the street. Along the way they gave one man back his freedom, and the Rahat police are now sorting out how he came to be chained in a home in Rahat. “Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:” (Psalm 146:7)