Bedouin hostage’s father demands Arab world condemn Hamas

“We want the Arab world to voice their opinion: What do they think about the fact that innocent people were kidnapped and murdered?”

By World Israel News Staff

A Bedouin-Israeli father of a recently released hostage, who was held by Hamas for more than a decade, is demanding that the Arab world speak out against the terror group’s atrocities.

Shabaan a-Sayyid’s son Hisham, who has schizophrenia, crossed into the Strip in 2015. He was returned to Israel on Saturday in a near-catatonic state and appeared to not recognize his own relatives.

Speaking to Hebrew-language media, a-Sayyid urged Arab countries to condemn Hamas, which he said had acted contrary to Islam in its abusive treatment of his son.

“I saw that Bedouins and Arabs were killed, working people who weren’t soldiers or fighters,” said a-Sayyid, referencing the October 7th massacres.

“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?”

A-Sayyid said he was shocked by the horrendous treatment his son apparently suffered.

“At the start of [Hisham’s] captivity, when there were four hostages in Gaza, I thought that Hamas members would keep him safe,” a-Sayyid said.

He said he believed that Hamas understood “it was in their interest” to ensure his son remained in a good state so that he could be exchanged for Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons. However, “when we got Hisham back, we were relieved to see him walking on his own two feet, but as I held him in my arms, I realized I was hugging a body… not a human being.”

The father added that Hisham “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.”

At least 17 Bedouins were murdered during the October 7th onslaught, and eight were kidnapped. Some were killed by rocket fire, while others were shot to death by rampaging terrorists.

One Bedouin man abducted by Hamas, Farhan Al-Qadi, was kept in a subterranean tunnel and given barely enough food to survive, despite being a Muslim.