Brit ISIS fighter dubbed ‘Hungry Hamza’ who fled to Syria then moaned about missing fast food admits he is ‘bearing the brunt’ of his mistakes as he languishes in tuberculosis-ridden jail

A British ISIS fighter in Syria admitted that he is now ‘bearing the brunt’ of his mistakes as he languishes in a tuberculosis-ridden jail under the Syrian Democratic Front (SDF).

Hamza Parvez, from London, was the first Briton to publicly admit his allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014, and was dubbed ‘Hungry Hamza’ when he posted on social media about missing fast food.

From a cell of some two dozen prisoners in al Hasekah, northeastern Syria, he told Sky News that ‘a lot of mistakes were made’ and that he was ‘bearing the brunt of those mistakes’.

Parvez, who has been held since U.S.-backed coalition forces ousted ISIS from its strongholds in 2019, gave a chilling response when asked about his involvement in the group’s atrocities.

Asked whether he took part, he ‘grinned’ coyly: ‘I can’t say. Just take my smile.’

Parvez acknowledged that the group ‘did stuff to terrorise the world’ and said he does not ‘defend’ its actions: ‘We had one chance, and we didn’t do exactly as it should be done.’

The Londoner left his home in 2014 and became one of the first Britons to join the terror group as it took over parts of Syria and Iraq. He surrendered to Kurdish forces after ISIS were crushed in 2019, and was transferred to a prison in Syria.

Hamza Parvez, pictured in 2025, was among the first jihadis to join ISIS in 2014

Today he is languishing in a disease-ridden prison in northeastern Syria

Hamza was dubbed Hungry Hamza after moaning about missing the food in Britain

Parvez is today held in the Panorama Prison, still under the control of the SDF following the lightning offensive by HTS and other opposition groups in December to tackle the Assadist regime.

Sky News reported from Syria that the prison remains guarded by armed checkpoints and thick bomb blast walls topped with razor wire. 

A senior Kurdish soldier from the SDF told the outlet that attacks by the last vestiges of ISIS have ‘doubled’ since the fall, with swathes of the country still contested.

Hamza Parvez is among around 10,000 alleged ISIS fighters still locked up in northern Syria, as of February 2025.

Many were captured on the battlefield as ISIS fell apart in 2019, later moved to 28 jails in the SDF-controlled regions.

Parvez, then 26, was stripped of his British citizenship and left in prison after surrendering to Kurdish forces.

His family urged the government to reconsider.

‘If he needs to be punished for his crime then so be it,’ a relative told MailOnline at the time.

‘But we want him to be prosecuted here so he gets a fair trial. Also if he goes to prison in Britain, at least we can visit him.’

Hamza Parvez moved from his comfortable life in West London to join ISIS in 2014

Parvez shares a cell with ‘about 25 others’, Sky News reported from Panorama Prison 

The prison recently suffered an outbreak of tuberculosis, the outlet reported

Muhammad Aleen, 33, from Canada, told Sky News during the visit to Panorama Prison that he was forced to fight with ISIS, claiming ‘we have zero rights’ detained in Syria.

‘This is not justice,’ he said. ‘We’ve just been left here… None of us are a threat to our country.’ 

Alex Crawford reported for Sky News that ‘disease is rife’ inside the prison, and said there was an outbreak of tuberculosis in the prison when they visited.

ISIS also gave out few luxuries to its jihadi fighters.

Parvez said he had lost nearly five stone while fighting for ISIS, and criticised the group over how they distributed food. 

He appeared on an ISIS recruitment video after joining the jihadis in 2014, telling British Muslims to follow his example, but was mocked online for moaning about having to give up his favourite KFC and Nando’s meals.

He told the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville at the time: ‘I didn’t know there was something waiting for me like that. Most foreign fighters say ‘We would never have come if we had know the realities of ISIS’.’

He added: ‘Many kids passed away from malnutrition… I blame ISIS for it.’

Hamza Parvez travelled to Syria in May 2014, telling his family that he was going to Germany

Parvez said he had lost nearly five stone while fighting for ISIS, and criticised the group over how they distributed food

Somerville said Parvez ‘lied extensively’ during their interview and the full extent of his crimes are unlikely to be uncovered.

He questioned Parvez on why he didn’t just leave the group if he hated it so much.

Parvez said: ‘There was many times where I thought time to pack up and leave and there’s many times I did try to pack up and leave but the reality was that it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

‘It’s a small group of very big fish [in ISIS] which make all the decisions for all the people.’

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