
Muhammad Al-Tous, a Fatah terrorist who was sentenced to life in Israeli prison for having led several deadly attacks against Israeli civilians and who was recently released as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, said in a January 28, 2025 show on Al-Mashhad TV (UAE) that he has been advising his children and grandchildren to refrain entirely from carrying out any military operations against Israel, and to instead focus on "political efforts."
When the reporter challenged him by saying that it had been a direct military operation (i.e. the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion and massacres in southern Israel) that had resulted in his release from prison after 40 years, Al-Tous answered: "But the price is hard [to accept]." He said that he and the other prisoners did not want the price of their release to be even one drop of blood from a Palestinian child, adding that they had acted because they wanted their children to live in a free future, not to die for their release. He said: "So what can we say about over 60,000 martyrs who have been killed? And for what? To secure the release of 3,000-3,500 prisoners?
Muhammad Al-Tous had served almost 40 years of his life sentence, which he was given for his role commanding a Fatah terrorist cell that had attacked five civilian buses in 1985, wounding 16 passengers, as well as for having masterminded the murders of five Israeli civilians in 1984 and 1985.
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Muhammad Al-Tous: "I told [my son] Shadi, when he was in school... I told him that the current stage requires us to completely refrain from carrying out military operations. All the focus must be on the political efforts, which were the main focus back then. I am still guiding him and my grandchildren to refrain from engaging in direct resistance activities..."
Interviewer: "You advise them to stay away from direct resistance activities?"
Al-Tous: "Yes."
Interviewer: "Why?"
Al-Tous: "Because circumstances change, and the way things are right now, direct military operations are not needed..."
Interviewer: "But some people might say that it was a direct military operation that got you out of prison, after 40 years."
Al-Tous: "But the price is very hard [to accept]. We have always said that we did not want the price of our release to be one drop of the blood of a Palestinian child, because we did what we did for the sake of these people and for these children, and by no means would we accept that they would be the price of our freedom. We were acting so that our people and our children could live free in the future, and not so that they would die in order get us out of prison.
"We are willing to spend our whole lives in prison to prevent even one Palestinian child or woman from being wounded. So what can we say about over 60,000 martyrs who have been killed? And for what? To secure the release of 3,000-3,500 prisoners? Before the operations, we were a total of 4,700 prisoners, with 2,200 of them on administrative detention, which means that they could be released in 6, 12, or 18 month at the most..."