Father of freed Gaza hostage says fellow Arabs should be outraged by Hamas

JERUSALEM – The father of Mr Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim returned to Israel after nearly a decade in Gaza captivity, on Feb 23 urged “the Arab world” to speak out against abuses by Hamas.

Mr Sayed, 37, was released by the Palestinian militant group on Feb 22 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 has been held hostage there since.

The father, Mr Shaaban al-Sayed, said that at the start of his son’s captivity, when there were four hostages in Gaza, he thought “Hamas members would keep him safe because it was in their interest” to exchange him for Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Speaking to journalists at a hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, he said that after Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, he “began to tremble with fear”.

“I saw that Bedouins and Arabs were killed – working people who weren’t soldiers or fighters,” said Mr 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?”

Mr 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, but as I held him in my arms, I realised I was hugging a body... not a human being,” the father said.

“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 for intensified efforts to free all remaining hostages in Gaza. AFP