900 days since she went missing, Haymanut Kasau’s family demands answers from Shin Bet

Dozens of people protest outside the Shin Bet headquarters in north Tel Aviv to demand the security agency help find Haymanut Kasau, who went missing at age 9 from an absorption center in Safed soon after her family came to Israel from Ethiopia.

The protest comes on the eve of the 900th day since the girl disappeared in February 2024. In February this year, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara approved the Shin Bet getting involved in the investigation, but the girl’s family says the agency has failed to act.

Protesters chant “justice for Haymanut,” “Haymanut is a hostage” and “where is the Shin Bet,” and hoist signs that read, “mom and dad are doing everything.”

אמה של היימנוט בהפגנה ליד מטה שבכ – חוסמים את הצומת pic.twitter.com/tZkKjHa3ME

— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) August 12, 2026

In a letter to Shin Bet chief David Zini, Haymanut’s father Tesfai says it’s hard not to think the security agency has ignored the girl’s plight because of the color of her skin.

“I’m stopping myself, with all my strength, from thinking it has to do with color. But it’s very hard not to think things would look different if we looked different,” says the letter, which the father reads in the original Amharic, followed by a Hebrew translation read by a supporter.

“Prove to me I didn’t make a mistake by coming here. As a father to a father, prove to me that the Land of Israel is the safest place for Jews,” the letter says.

Haymanut’s mother, Benchi, asks whether skin color was why the Shin Bet didn’t rush to look for her daughter the way it helped in the search for 4-year-old Yuval Kogan, who went missing on a beach in Ashkelon last month and was found safe and sound a day later.

“When I heard Yuval’s story, I was jolted as a mother — I knew what the mother was going through. After 24 hours, when they found him, I calmed down,” says Benchi, according to a supporter’s Hebrew translation of her comments. “On the other hand… the speedy entrance of the Shin Bet stung. It made me wonder whether Haymanut isn’t deserving as well — if color is really playing a part here.”