The residents of the Nuseirat refugee camp who lived in close proximity to the families who held the four hostages released in a daring rescue operation on June 8, told the Wall Street Journal that they find it hard to believe that the hostages were held so close to them without them knowing about it.
The neighbors recounted how "Ahmed al-Jamal went to work in the mornings at a public clinic in the Nuseirat camp and in the afternoons at his own small private clinic. He was also an imam in a local mosque. But during the last few months, when he finished his job, he would return home to the apartment he shared with his son, daughter-in-law and their children - and the three Israeli hostages they hid there for Hamas."
It was known in Nuseirat that the al-Jamal family was close to Hamas but according to them, few people in the densely populated area of central Gaza knew about the dark secret of a small locked room of the family's apartment. The IDF confirmed that the person holding the hostages, al-Jamal's son, is the 37-year-old Palestinian journalist Abdullah al-Jamal.
From their locked and guarded room, the hostages said they could hear Abdullah and his wife, Fatma, a phlebotomy doctor at a local clinic, and their children going about their daily lives in the apartment.
A few blocks from al-Jamal's home, another family with Hamas ties named Abu Nar held Noa Argamani, according to local residents and an Israeli official.
The neighbors were surprised by the discovery, as it is so difficult to keep a secret in the densely built neighborhood. Even a cough can be heard through the walls of the concrete and block apartment buildings, they said. Others were outraged that Hamas put civilians in danger - they claim that Hamas should have kept the hostages in the tunnels.