In 2015, Israeli citizens of Ethiopian origin held signs calling on Hamas to release Avera Mengistu, who was kidnapped after entering Gaza a year earlier.File photo by Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE
January 16 (United Press International) — Palestinian militant group Hamas A video was released on Monday that it claims shows a kidnapped Israeli man who has been missing since 2014.
Short footage appears to show Avera Mengistu crossing the border into Hamas-controlled Gaza The 2014 strip, where he was kidnapped by Hamas.
Mengistu has not been heard from since.
in September, Supporters hold rally markers Eight years after Mengistu disappeared.
If verified, the video would prove Mengistu is alive.
“After years of suffering and suffering, how long will my friends and I be imprisoned here? Where is the country and people of Israel?” he appears to say in the video.
israel security The force has not verified the video’s Reality late Monday night.
“I’m not sure it was him,” said Mengistu’s brother, Ilan Mengistu, In an interview with Israel Broadcaster N12 News.
“It’s scary because there are similarities, but I’m not sure,” he said. “They send it to me and I share it with all my brothers and they’ll tell me.”
The video itself poses a direct challenge to Lieutenant General Herz Halevy, Israel’s incoming military chief of staff, who was sworn in on Monday. The video warns Halavi that he “must be prepared to bear the burden of failure and its consequences.”
It also targeted the commander-in-chief of the Israel Defense Forces, Aviv Kohavi, by superimposing a sentence on his photo.
“I am sorry that I have not been able to resolve the issue of the soldier’s return during this time [as chief of staff],” the quote reads.
Mengistu, an Israeli citizen of Ethiopian descent who was in his 20s when he disappeared, walked into Gaza in September 2014, about two weeks after the ceasefire was in effect.
His hometown is about 10 miles to the north.