The father of Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim who was 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 terror group on Saturday under the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel. The man, whose family has said he is diagnosed with schizophrenia, entered the Gaza Strip while in mental distress in 2015 and was taken hostage.

Sayed was one of two hostages held alive in the Gaza Strip for over a decade. The other, Avera Mengistu, who entered the enclave in 2014, was also released on Saturday. Hamas also killed and captured two Israeli soldiers in 2014 — Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff. Sgt. Oron Shaul.

Shaul’s body was recovered by Israeli troops last month, but Goldin’s body remains in Hamas custody.

“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 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails, said Sayed’s father, Sha’ban al-Sayed.

Speaking to journalists at a hospital in Tel Aviv, he said that after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages,........

© The Times of Israel