Kidnapped Hamas leader released in Damascus

Hamas officials in Gaza said on Monday night that a former senior Hamas official, Mustafa Lidawi, has been released from captivity in Syria, after being held for two days by unidentified gunmen.

Lidawi was hospitalized in Damascus due to the harsh torture he underwent when he was kidnapped.

According to Palestinian sources, Hamas leaders have asked Syrian authorities as well as Iranian envoy to Syria for help in finding the former official.

On Saturday, Mustafa Lidawi, who served as a Hamas representative in Lebanon, Syria and Iran, was kidnapped while driving his car near his home in Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. It was not immediately clear who was behind his Kidnapping.

Al-Yarmouk refugee camp is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has seen a number of deadly incidents.

A vehicle belonging to the Palestinian Liberation Army in the camp was hit by an explosion that killed three people.

Last June, 14 Palestinians in the same camp were reported killed and another 43 injured after attacking the headquarters of leftist group PFLP-GC amid tensions between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime, PA official news agency Wafa reported at the time.

It is worth mentioning that Mustafa Lidawi was expelled by Israeli forces from Gaza to Lebanon in the early 1990s as he wes an active leader within the the Islamic Resistance Movement 'HAMAS'.

In 2002, Lidawi left politics and started a career as a journalist, mainly for Arabic-language news stations in Iran.

Earlier, Lidawi wrote that Hamas should move away from violence and follow the model of the non-violent Arab Spring revolutions that have resulted in the downfall of the regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and now threaten Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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