His photo is on the front page of Israeli dailies Ha’Aretz et Jerusalem Post. This is the capture of a video made public on Tuesday, June 28, by the Ezzedine Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. It shows the Israeli Arab Hisham Al-Sayed, presented as an Israeli soldier by Hamas, but as a sick and mentally unstable man by the Israeli authorities and his family.
He was last caught on surveillance systems as he entered the Gaza Strip, a Hamas-held enclave, in April 2015, said Amos Harel, security and defense columnist for Ha’Aretz.
Al-Qassam Brigades broadcasts scenes of the captured soldier, Hisham Al-Sayed pic.twitter.com/9Q0vdcW6Dv
— Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) June 28, 2022
This brief video, in which Hicham Al-Sayed, 34, appears “lying on a bed and with an oxygen mask on his face, Harel writes, is the first significant evidence of life provided by Hamas” since the capture of the Israeli national just over seven years ago.
Prisoner exchange
This video not only shows the Israeli ID of the man, now 34, but also footage from the Pan-Arab channel Al-Jazeera filmed at the Qatar Economic Forum on June 21, which allow us to date the recording. The day before the video was published, the Al-Qassam brigades had reported the “deterioration of the state of health of an enemy prisoner”.
“This unusual revelation could indicate one of two things: either that Al-Sayed’s health has indeed deteriorated, as Hamas claims, or that the organization itself is in distress and has therefore decided to exert more pressure to induce Israel to resume negotiations for a prisoner exchange.”
Since 2015, an agreement on the release by Hamas of Israelis – alive or dead – in exchange for the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners has indeed been on the table.
According to the office of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the Jewish state is seeking the release of Hisham Al-Sayed and another Israeli, Avera Mengistu, allegedly living in the hands of Hamas since 2014, as well as the restitution of two remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza the same year.
In 2011, Israel released more than a thousand Palestinians in exchange for Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, detained for more than five years by Hamas.