Hamas Official Hisham Qasem, in an interview on Turkish station TRT TV on November 26, claimed that the Thai nationals kidnapped to Gaza were taken for their own safety.
Qasem, in a talk translated by the Middle East Media Research Interview, claimed that Turkey and Hamas had “discussed the release of some of the [Thai] detainees.
Hamas Official Hisham Qasem Explains the Abduction of Thai Nationals to Gaza: We Detained Them for Their Own Safety Due to the Indiscriminate Israeli Shelling of the Area #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians #Thailand #hostages pic.twitter.com/RwntylJev0
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 27, 2023
“As we said at the beginning of the October 7 operation, these [Thai nationals] were detained for their own protection, because on October 7, the forces of the Zionist army were shelling the houses with people inside - whether members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, [foreign] laborers, or even the Zionist inhabitants of those settlements,” he said.
Hamas conspiracy theories
The Hamas official's false claims that Israel attacked its own people have been mirrored by the Palestinian Authority's leadership and have been circulated online by conspiracists. Extensive documentation has proven that the atrocities committed on October 7 were done so by members of the Hamas terrorist organization.
“This was admitted in the initial investigation of the Interior Ministry,” Qasem goes on to claim, adding that it was reported in the Israeli media sources Haaretz and Maariv." Haaretz has denied ever publishing such a finding and no record in Maariv verifying Qasem’s claims.
Qasem also claimed that the release of hostages was thanks to the “blessed mediation by Turkey” despite media reports stating that Iran had brokered the deal to have the foreign nationals released.