Among the six hostages that Hamas released today in return with Palestinian prisoners was an Israeli Bedouin as well as an Israeli Ethiopian origin held in Gaza for many years before the attack of October 7, 2023.
36-year-old Hissam al-Sajend and 39-year-old Aera Mengisto are citizens who entered the Gaza Strip ten years ago and have been held since.
Both have a history of mental illness, according to comments from their families and with a report by NGO Human Rights Watch in 2017.
Mengistou, who was born in Ethiopia and lived in the city of ASKELON, Southern Israel, passed through a highly barbarian spinach near Gaza beach in September 2014, while Sagid, an Israeli Bedouin nationality. He passed to Gaza from east in April 2015.
“Our family spent ten years and five months of unthinkable pain,” Mengistos’ family wrote in a statement. “During all this, there were uninterrupted efforts to return, prayers and appeals were made, sometimes silently, that they found no response today.”
Although Hamas described them as soldiers at some point, Human Rights Watch said that none of them were linked to the Israeli government or the army, but that they both used to walk long distances. It is not known why they entered Gaza.
“Why keep someone who did nothing wrong? He is a peaceful man who wanted to get to Gaza, he loves Gaza, he didn’t go there aggressively, “Sagand’s father, Saaban al-Sajend, told the public Israeli radio this week.
“This was more painful for us than anything else.”
For years it was almost nothing known for the condition of the two men until Hamas released a video with Sajad lying on bed with an oxygen mask in June 2022 and Mengisto in January 2023 in an obvious attempt to put pressure on Israel to exchange them with Palestinian prisoners.
In addition to Sajent and Mengistou, Hamas was holding the corpses of two Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza War in 2014. The body of Saul was recovered by Israeli troops in Gaza last month, while Hadar Goldin is still in .
