Career
In April 2009, he was appointed the new interior minister in the Gaza Strip, replacing Said Seyam who was assassinated by Israel in the 2008-2009 Gaza War. He also leads the Hamas Public Affairs Department and is the director of First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Aqsa television, 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. Foreign 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 Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, at the request of the Jordanian king Abdullah. A speech made by Hamad broadcast on First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Aqsa television 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 First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Aqsa television on 14 December 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Hamad stated that Hamas receives support.