Netanyahu calls on world to seek release of Israelis held in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday called on the international community to secure the release of two Israeli citizens who were reported to have crossed into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

"I expect the same international community that expresses its concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza to issue a clear call to release these civilians and make sure they return," Netanyahu said.

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“We are working to secure the release of both Israelis who crossed the border fence into Gaza. We see Hamas as responsible for their wellbeing,” he added.

Israeli officials on Thursday lifted a gag order on information that two Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after having crossed into the Palestinian territory.

In 2011, Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas for five years, and critics said that would encourage further abductions.

And the Shalit case already appears to be having a bearing on this one, with a Hamas official saying former prisoners re-arrested by Israel last year must be freed before there is any talk about releasing the Israelis.

The defense ministry said that, "according to credible intelligence" Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descent, "is being held against his will by Hamas in Gaza."

Mengistu had "independently crossed the security fence" into Gaza, the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas, a statement said.

"The defense establishment is currently dealing with an additional case of an Israeli Arab also being held in Gaza," it said, without elaborating.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the two were "held by Hamas."

"I expect the international community, which expresses its concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, to issue a clear call to release the citizens and ensure their return," Netanyahu said in a statement.

The defence ministry said Mengistu entered the Palestinian territory on September 7, shortly after last summer's war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel does not allow its citizens to enter Gaza, partly out of fears that they may be used as bargaining chips to demand concessions, including the release of prisoners.

The case had been kept quiet due to an Israeli gag order, which was lifted on Thursday by a judge in the southern city of Ashkelon, where Mengistu lived, local media reported.

The reports said information on the Israeli Arab was still under a gag order, but implied he had been missing for a number of months.

Ilan Mengistu, one of Avera's brothers, said Thursday in a press conference at the family home that "my brother is not in good health... this is a serious humanitarian issue." He had then requested that the state and the international community both intervene on Avera's behalf.

Addressing Hamas, Ilan asked them to "take consideration of my brother's condition and release him immediately."

Reports of Mengistu's disappearance, which were few and conflicting, surfaced in media occasionally since October, including a brief report on i24news from May. The senior defense source said Israel kept a lid on the reports, thinking that publicity would damage prospects of gaining the release of the two.

"Israel knows for sure that Mengistu was arrested and interrogated by Hamas. Since then we have lost trace of himbut Israel is working on the assumption that Mengistu is alive, and we are sure that Hamas is keeping him," the defense source said.

"There have been many efforts to reach him and to try and get information on him," he said. "Hamas told us that they arrested him, interrogated him and released him, and now don't know his whereabouts."

The Ynet website, citing a source in Gaza familiar with the affair, said Hamas had initially held Mengistu but freed him when it turned out he was not a soldier. He then made his way into Egypt through an underground tunnel, according to the Ynet source.

Hamas authorities in Gaza did not confirm or deny that they are holding Mengistu, though Hamas had been making cryptic statements that indicate they may be holding an Israeli captive. The statements could also be interpreted as meanings that they are holding one or more bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in last summer's Operation Protective Edge. Israel has reportedly been negotiating with the organization through intermediaries to get the bodies back.

Mengistu's family told Haaretz they were "fed up" with the Israeli authorities' handling of his disappearance. "We want to go public with the story," Mengistu's brother, Yalo, told Haaretz, saying that Israeli officials did not meet with them until they contacted then-Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata and asked for her help. Tamano-Shata herself is of Ethiopian origin.

"I am one million percent certain that if he were white, we would not have come to a situation like this," Yalo Mengistu said. The family was shown footage from a security camera on the Gaza border that shows Avera calmly climbing over the fence that separates Israel and Gaza and continuing further into Hamas territory.

The family had since met Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Yaalon. Netanyahu appointed a special team to look into the situation, led by (reserve) Colonel Lior Lotan.

The senior Israeli official who briefed reporters said Netanyahu and top echelons are committed to bringing back the two Israelis as well as the remains of the two dead soldiers. "If Hamas admits they have them, it can result in progress," he said.

Tal Shalev is the i24news diplomatic correspondent.