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Bedouin hostage arrives back in Israel after private release
Bedouin hostage arrives back in Israel after private release
Hamas militants freed Israeli Bedouin Hisham al-Sayed after nearly 10 years of captivity in Gaza in private on Saturday, saying the lack of ceremony was intended to "honour and respect" Palestinians inside Israel.
Sayed was among six captives released by militants as part of the seventh hostage-prisoner swap to take place under the first phase of a fragile truce in the Gaza Strip.
But he was spared what has become the routine public and well-choreographed ceremony of such handovers, where hostages are paraded on stage before being transferred to Red Cross officials.
A Hamas official told AFP that the purpose of this separate release was to "honour and respect our people from the Palestinian communities living inside Israel".
"The occupation abandoned the prisoner Hisham al-Sayed for 10 years because he is a Palestinian from the territories occupied since 1948, despite the fact that he served in the army of the occupation," he added.
Israel and Sayed's family deny that he was a soldier.
Sayed, who turned 37 on February 15 and suffers from schizophrenia according to his parents, arrived back in Israeli territory on Saturday, the army said.
"After nearly a decade of fighting for Hisham's return, the long-awaited moment has arrived," his family said in a statement.
Sayed had been held in Gaza since he entered the territory of his own accord in 2015.
He had been considered missing for a year when in April 2016 his photo appeared on Hamas television.
Human Rights Watch then reported that he had been spotted by surveillance systems crossing into Gaza in April 2015.
In June 2022, Hamas published a video on Telegram showing Sayed on a bed hooked up to a ventilator.
Five other Israeli hostages were released in two public ceremonies in Gaza on Saturday, with Israel supposed to release more than 600 Palestinians in its custody in exchange.
Israeli officials said the release of Palestinian prisoners has been delayed pending a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
