The Red Cross is heading to a site in Gaza City to collect hostage Hisham al-Sayed from Hamas, an Israeli defense official says.
Hamas is releasing al-Sayed without a ceremony.
Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, entered the Strip on his own near the Erez Crossing in April 2015. According to his family, he suffers from mental illness.
Hamas reportedly decided not to hold a release ceremony for him out of “respect” for the Arab community in Israel, despite having held him for nearly a decade, as well as murdering and abducting several Arab Israelis during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Al-Sayed was last seen in a propaganda video issued by Hamas in 2022, in which he was hooked up to an oxygen mask.
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