JERUSALEM: The father of Hisham Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim returned to Israel after nearly a decade in Gaza captivity, on Sunday urged “the Arab world” to speak out against abuses by Hamas.
Sayed, 37, was released by the Palestinian militant group on Saturday under a fragile truce in its war with Israel. The man, who is schizophrenic according to his family, had entered the Gaza Strip in 2015 and was held hostage there since.
“At the start of his captivity, when there were four hostages in Gaza, I thought that Hamas members would keep him safe, because it was in their interest” to exchange him for Palestinians in Israeli jails, said the father, Shaaban Al-Sayed.
Speaking to journalists at a hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, he said that after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, “I began to tremble with fear.”
“I saw that Bedouins and Arabs were killed, working people who weren’t soldiers or fighters,” said Sayed of some of the hundreds killed during the attack.
“The Arab world doesn’t react, doesn’t give any response to that, doesn’t take any stance,” he said.
“We want the Arab world, and particularly Arab society in Israel, to voice their opinion: What do they think about the fact that innocent people were kidnapped and murdered?“
Sayed accused Hamas of violating the teachings of Islam by exploiting his son who “has mental problems.”
“When we got Hisham back, we were relieved to see him walking on his legs,” the father added, “but as I held him in my arms, I realized I was hugging a body... not a human being.”
“He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t have a voice. He can’t remember anything. It’s like he hadn’t been with other human beings” during his years in captivity, he said.
“This makes us angry,” added the father, calling to intensify efforts to free all remaining hostages in Gaza.
Father of freed Gaza hostage says fellow Arabs should be outraged by Hamas
https://arab.news/47fvr
Father of freed Gaza hostage says fellow Arabs should be outraged by Hamas
- Sayed, 37, was released by the Palestinian militant group on Saturday under a fragile truce in its war with Israel
Syrian government says it controls prison in Raqqa with Daesh-linked detainees
- Prison holds detainees linked to Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity between advancing Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over Al-Aktan prison in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prison has been holding detainees linked to the militant group Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.
It was not immediately clear how many Daesh detainees remain in Al-Aktan prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the militant Islamist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.
“Specialized teams were formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to take over the tasks of guarding and securing the prison and controlling the security situation inside it,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing Daesh detainees was meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.
The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near Al-Aktan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces “could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism.”
The US transfer of Daesh prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level Daesh fighters from Syria’s Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.
