Fathi Hamad

Fathi Hamad (Arabic: فتحي حماد‎‎), also spelled as Fathi Hammad, is a political leader of Hamas. In April 2009, he was appointed the new interior minister in the Gaza Strip, replacing Said Seyam who was assassinated by Israel in the 2008-09 Gaza War. Hamad became a Hamas-affiliated member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006, representing his home town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He also leads the Hamas Public Affairs Department and is the director of Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas-run television station.

In November 2009, Waad, a Gaza charity headed by Hamad, offered a $1.4 million bounty to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts an Israeli soldier. While Palestinian militant groups have frequently called on Arab-Israelis to capture soldiers, this marked the first time money had been offered.

Hamad's is ill three-year-old daughter was sent to Jordan for medical treatment through the Israeli-controlled Erez Crossing. For initial medical treatment, she was first sent to Barzilai Hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Her subsequent transfer to Jordan was authorized by then Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and the then IDF Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, at the request of the Jordanian king Abdullah.

A speech made by Hamad broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV in February 2008 has been used as evidence by Israel and others that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups make use of human shields. In an interview which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on 14 December 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Hamad stated that Hamas receives support.

In a speech broadcast on Egyptian Al-Helma TV on March 23, 2012, Fathi Hamas condemned Egypt over the fuel shortage in the Gaza Strip and stated, "Half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis."