Hamid, who is also the father-in-law of current al-Qaeda leader Saif al-Adil, pointed to the fallout from the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted more than 250 others. from Israel to the Gaza Strip. One hundred of them still remain in Gaza, but the Israeli authorities have information that about half of them are already dead.
“Nobody cares about Palestinian prisoners now. Neither in the media, nor at meetings, nor at demonstrations,” complained Hámid, who is supposed to be close to the highest representatives of the organization.
Hamid further stated that Hamas must now “immediately” return all hostages and the bodies of those who did not survive imprisonment in Gaza. “This chapter must be closed and must not be reopened because we know the consequences,” he added.
In his statement on Friday, Hámid also highlighted the slain head of the political wing of Hamas, Yahya Sinvár, who was neutralized this week by the Israeli army with a shot to the head.
More than a hundred hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after Sinvár’s death that this opened up a chance to end the war in the Gaza Strip if Hamas releases the hostages. However, the movement conditioned their release on the Israeli promise of a cease-fire.
Hamas is currently holding 101 hostages from 23 countries. “Israel is determined to do everything in its power to get them all home,” Netanyahu said.
Al-Qaeda was responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. Subsequently, it was the target of the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. Its leader at the time, Osama bin Laden, was killed ten years later by American special forces in Pakistan. Bin Laden’s successor Ayman al-Zawahir was killed in a US drone strike in July 2022.
However, the Islamist terrorist core survived, as the AFP agency recalled, and the aforementioned Saif al-Adel, a former lieutenant colonel of the Egyptian special forces, whose presence was noted in Iran, is considered its de facto leader.