More than 150 Palestinian terrorists deported from Israel as part of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal are staying at a five-star Cairo hotel alongside unsuspecting tourists, the Daily Mail reported Saturday, citing reporters who booked rooms “just a few doors down” from the former prisoners.
Under the terms of the deal, Israel freed some 2,000 security prisoners, including some 250 serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks. The worst of the offenders were deported.
Now, the Daily Mail reports, many of them are to be found lounging by the pool, bar and buffet at the Renaissance Cairo Mirage, a Marriott hotel.
There, they have been spending time with relatives “who had flown to be with them” and “posing for selfies with adoring local fans” — at one point to the tune of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” which was playing in the outdoor wedding of an “unconnected Christian couple,” the report said.
Last Saturday, former Fatah Tanzim chief Akram Abu Bakr held his own wedding ceremony on the hotel grounds, according to the Daily Mail.
Other former prisoners seen at the hotel, according to the Mail, included Mahmoud Issa, who has been imprisoned since 1993 for his part in the abduction and murder of Border Police officer Nissim Toledano the previous year; Samir Abu Nima, serving life in jail for a 1983 Jerusalem bus bombing that killed six people including, an 11-year-old child; and Muhammad Zawahra, who took part in a deadly 2024 shooting near near a Jerusalem-area checkpoint.
Many of the deported prisoners were also seen “withdrawing wads of cash from ATMs within the hotel,” the Daily Mail said.
Under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel on October 13 released some 250 life-term prisoners from Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups after Hamas released the last 20 living hostages abducted on October 7, 2023.
????Hamas terrorists released under the Gaza peace deal are staying in a five-star hotel alongside unsuspecting Western tourists.
Experts warned of a radical new threat to global security after the Daily Mail tracked down more than 150 of the highly dangerous extremists to a… pic.twitter.com/rMwNwsiR21
— Grifty (@TheGriftReport) October 25, 2025
Israel also released some 1,700 Gazans detained amid the war in Gaza who were uninvolved in the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught, which sparked the war, when thousands of terrorists invaded Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Of the life-term prisoners, 154 were barred from staying in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank due to convictions on murder or arms production charges.
They were sent to Egypt, where, according to the Daily Mail, they arrived at the Cairo hotel and were received by “huge crowds of friends, family and fans” before descending “to a function room beneath booked for the occasion.”
Mahmoud al-Arida, a senior Islamic Jihad member convicted of terrorist activities and deadly attacks on soldiers in the 1990s, and a mastermind of the 2021 Gilboa prison escape, posted a picture of himself enjoying cheese at the reception, with the caption, “My first time with a spoon after four long years with local labneh from Arraba and thyme from the Arraba hills,” the Mail said.
Al-Arida was one of six prisoners who reportedly used a spoon, among other implements, to tunnel out of the Gilboa prison.
The outlet said that the terrorists will apply for permanent residency and be monitored by local security forces, and that some of them intend to move on to Qatar, Turkey, or Tunisia.
Those who wanted to exit the hotel had to seek approval from armed Egyptian police officers stationed outside, the Mail said.
Among the people okayed to leave the grounds was Basem Khandakji, who helped carry out a 2004 bombing at Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market that killed three people and injured over 50, according to the Mail, which cited experts expressing concern that the ex-prisoners had too few restrictions on their movement and ability to assemble.
Security policy expert Anthony Glees, an emeritus professor at the University of Buckingham, was quoted by the outlet saying that the deported prisoners “are our sworn enemies. They will cut off the heads of British soldiers and kill left, right and center.”
“We must not let them collect together,” he said. “There can be no hiding place for these people. Otherwise, you are setting up a terrorist army in exile.”
The Mail also quoted “a former Israeli intelligence officer known as Guy C” saying that the terrorists deported abroad had “no restrictions on their movements in these countries.”
“They can walk freely, travel to Europe – even the UK – receive donations from naive supporters, and gain backing from protesters who already sympathize with them,” he was quoted as saying. “The first thing these terrorists will do when they reach Turkey or Qatar is contact their associates in Gaza and the West Bank to send money and re-establish their networks. They will quickly regroup and form new terror cells.”
The outlet calculated the combined cost of all 154 former prisoners staying at the hotel, where rooms start at $200 a night, as upwards of £30,000 ($39,000) per night.
It was also unclear who was footing the bill for the ex-prisoners’ stay, the Mail said, adding that Marriott did not respond to a request for comment.
The Mail also said it did not receive any comment from Hamas’s allies, Turkey and Qatar, which the outlet speculated would alone “have the means and the motivation to foot such a bill.”
