Al-Jazeera said to have photo of 'missing' Hamas commandos held by Egypt

Four of the terror group’s top fighters were reportedly abducted last year to prevent them heading to Iran for training

Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based news outlet, was set to publish a photo on Monday night said to have been leaked from an Egyptian prison that purports to show four senior members of Hamas’s naval commando force who went missing a year ago.

The four disappeared in August 2015 while crossing from Gaza to Egypt during a humanitarian window in the Egyptian blockade of the coastal strip. As The Times of Israel reported at the time, they were pulled from a bus at the border crossing by unidentified gunmen.

According to reports on Hamas-affiliated websites, there were 50 passengers on the bus. When it had traveled about a kilometer from the Rafah border crossing, two cars with plain-clothed armed men inside started chasing it. They stopped the bus and began examining the ID cards of all those on board.

When they saw the names of the four — Abd el-Da’im el-Basset, Said Abdallah Abu Jabin, Yasser Fathi Zanon and Hussein Hamis el-Dabda — they whisked them away to an unknown location.

The incident immediately made headlines, but the Egyptians claimed that the Sinai affiliate of Islamic State, Walayat Sinai (or Sinai Province), was to blame for the kidnapping.

Hamas dismissed this claim, and Al-Jazeera quoted a Hamas source at the time asserting that Egyptian intelligence was responsible for the abduction.

Their disappearance led to heightened tension between Cairo and Hamas.

In this picture provided by the office of the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, second left, greets members of the Egyptian armed forces in Northern Sinai, Egypt, Saturday, July 4, 2015.(Egyptian Presidency /Mohammed Abdel-Muati via AP) — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, second from left, greets members of the Egyptian armed forces in Northern Sinai, Egypt, Saturday, July 4, 2015.(Egyptian Presidency/Mohammed Abdel-Muati via AP)

The four were reportedly on their way to Iran to undergo intensive training. When Egyptian intelligence learned of their travel plans, Cairo decided to intercept them, Hamas believes.

Egypt has been closely monitoring the activities of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, and especially in the area bordering the Sinai. Egyptian intelligence believes Hamas fighters have been working together with Islamic State-linked activists in the peninsula responsible for terror attacks in Egypt and which the Egyptian military has sought to suppress for the past two years.

“We will not overlook what happened to our sons in the Sinai,” the Hamas military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said at the time during a military procession in Rafah.

“We will maintain our silence and not talk too much, but al-Qassam has taught the world that its actions take precedence over words. At the right time, everyone will know that we speak the truth.”

That statement was made exactly one year ago, on August 22, 2015.

Regional media has long reported that Hamas’s naval commandos undergo intensive training in Iran, which also arms the force with advanced equipment and technology.

The terror group’s naval force is said to be in possession of “scooters,” or diver propulsion vehicles that enable individual commandos to travel long distances underwater and strike deep inside Israeli territory.