Parents of Israeli held in Gaza plea for news, action five years on

The parents of an Israeli man believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza since 2014 travel to Geneva this week to demand international action to help bring him home.

Avera Mengistu, a 33-year-old Israeli of Ethiopian descent, was depressed and suffering from mental problems since the death of his older brother when he crossed into Gaza five years ago.

He was filmed by an Israeli security camera climbing the frontier fence with the Gaza Strip in September 2014.

Israel’s Defense Ministry determined he was being held by Hamas, but the Islamist movement governing Gaza has to date provided no information about his whereabouts or condition.

“This is just plain cruelty,” Avera’s mother Agarnesh tells AFP, speaking through an interpreter.

With tears trickling down her face, she implores Hamas to “provide any sign of life.”

“Is he alive or not? Does he eat? Does he receive medical care? Are they taking care of him?” she asks. After five years in the dark she is consumed by worry, she says.

“I cannot sleep, I cannot work, I cannot rest.”

She and her husband Ayelin, who live in the southern city of Ashkelon near the Gaza border, say they are traveling to Geneva to meet with diplomats and UN officials to ask why the international community was not doing more to help Avera, one of their 10 children.

They say countries that provide aid to Gaza should be able to put pressure on Hamas.

“Please help us! He is a sick person,” Agarnesh says.

— AFP