Recently released Palestinian terrorist Mohammed al-Tous spoke out against Hamas’s October 7 massacre in two separate interviews to Arab media this past week, citing the human cost of the ensuing Gaza war.
“Today, I tell my grandchildren not to go down the path of attacks and resistance,” the 69-year-old ex-detainee said in a Friday interview with the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya outlet. “We don’t want our freedom to come at the expense of our children’s’ lives.”
Al-Tous is the oldest terrorist freed so far as part of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal.
A member of the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, he was arrested in 1985 for organizing attacks on Israelis in and around Jerusalem. He went on to spend 40 years in prison.
Israeli authorities deported al-Tous to Egypt upon his release in the second round of the exchange, which saw 200 terrorists traded for four female Israeli hostages. He was one of 121 prisoners serving life sentences freed that day.
He was one of the few prisoners detained before the 1993 Oslo Accords not released as part of those agreements.
On Wednesday, al-Tous gave an interview to the Emirati al-Mashhad news outlet, in which he criticized Hamas leadership when asked about the October 7 attack that ultimately led to his release.
“If I had known the cost of my freedom, I would have stayed in prison… A leader who is thinking of carrying out a large attack must be aware of the cost. It is unacceptable that the cost of our release from prison is a drop of blood from a Palestinian child,” he said.
Al-Tous added that he encountered jailed Second Intifada leader Marwan Barghouti multiple times while in prison.
“I met Marwan Barghouti more than once, the last of which was two years ago. He was in good condition,” he told the outlet.
Barghouti, a top figure in Fatah serving five life sentences for planning attacks during the Second Intifada, is envisioned by many Palestinians as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In another Friday interview with The Independent, al-Tous spoke in favor of political negotiations toward a two-state solution in order to “prevent bloodshed on both sides.”
He urged unity within the Palestinian national movement, calling on Hamas to reconcile with Fatah and accept the leadership of Abbas, now 89 years old.
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