Police weigh sending team to Ethiopia in hunt for Israeli girl who vanished a year ago
Report says key CCTV footage missing from time Haymanut Kasau, 10, disappeared at an absorption center in Safed in February 2024; MK: Government owes family more effort to find her
Police are reportedly considering sending a team of investigators to Ethiopia to look into the disappearance of Haymanut Kasau, the then-9-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli girl who was last seen almost one year ago at an absorption center for new immigrants in the northern city of Safed.
The revelation came as Channel 13 was previewing a longer report to be aired later this month, titled “Haymanut: An Open Case,” which includes testimony from a girl — identified only by her first initial Aleph — who was with Kasau just minutes before her disappearance on February 25, 2024.
Aleph reported that two people were sitting near the children on a green bench, whispering to each other, as she and Haymanut played on a swing set, and that the two people disappeared at the same time that Kasau did.
In addition, Channel 13 reported that — contrary to popular opinion — the absorption center from which Kasau disappeared has six security cameras, all of which were working the night of her disappearance — but that footage from the cameras fixed on the center’s courtyard have several missing periods, spanning some fifteen minutes total, in which the relevant incidents are believed to have taken place.
The report said that over the last year, police have pursued dozens of avenues of investigation in Safed, including in some of the city’s ancient religious sites, but none have led to anything substantive.
On Monday, Tesfai Kasau, Haymanut’s father, lashed out at the police, during a hearing of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs, that was held on the topic of his daughter’s disappearance.
The girl’s father accused the police of holding up the investigation, and asked that they classify Haymanut as kidnapped, rather than as missing, to open up more resources for the case.
Knesset Member Oded Forer, who chairs the committee, said at the hearing: “This happened at an absorption center, under the watch of this government, and it demands, at the least, that the [Immigration and] Absorption Ministry run a publicity campaign, so that everyone in the country knows the girl’s face. And also in Ethiopia. There is a need to publish this widely.”
Haymanut was last seen in security footage at 7:45 p.m. on February 25, handing out municipal election leaflets outside the Jewish Agency absorption center, where she has lived for the past three years since immigrating with her family from Ethiopia.
According to a description, Haymanut stands at 1.20 meters (3’11”) and is slim with dark hair and dark eyes. She was wearing pink pants, a black skirt and a white shirt at the time of her disappearance.
The family intends to hold a rally on February 25, marking one year since the child disappeared.
