Egyptian authorities requested Hamas to open an urgent investigation into three brothers of the Palestinian Shaer family, who kidnapped an Egyptian man by the name of Gamil al-Sayeh from the city of Rafah and took him to the Gaza Strip through tunnels in order to kill him in retribution for killing their brother.
The brothers belong to the Palestinian Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Before the kidnapping, two weeks ago, their brother, Omar al-Shaer, was found dead in Rafah’s Goura neighborhood.
In response to the kidnapping, Sayeh’s father kidnapped a 4-year-old child from the Shaer family, whose members live in Egypt, and pledged to hold him hostage until his son came back, but the authorities managed to return the child to his family a few hours later.
Hamas sent the Egyptian authorities a video clip of Sayeh where he confessed to murdering Shaer with three others in order to steal US$12,000 he had on him.
Upon Egyptian insistence that Sayeh be returned, Hamas closed the tunnels, surrounded the Shaer family, and demanded that Sayeh be handed over.
Yet Sayeh was found dead in front of the Unknown Soldier memorial in Rafah on Tuesday.
The Egyptian authorities demanded that Hamas further investigate how Sayeh was killed and crossed the borders. Hamas promised to conduct an investigation.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
