Avera Mengistu, a member of the Ethiopian Jewish community, was taken prisoner and has been held ever since.
On August 20 the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) conducted a raid that rescued the bodies of six civilians who were taken hostage alive during the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 last year. Among the six was Nadav Popplewell, nephew of Channa Peri, the SA captive who was returned in the hostage deal that was concluded in November. The return of Popplewell’s body raises the question about the fates of the other African hostages and how they might be returned to their families, dead or alive.
Though the October 7 attacks targeted Israel, a number of foreign passport holders were caught up in the violence and taken hostage. Most of these were Thai, but Argentinian, German, Russian, Filipino, Sri Lankan and Chinese citizens were also taken. Two Tanzanian students, Clemence Felix Mtenga and Joshua Mollel, were among about 260 Tanzanian youths who were in Israel for a farming internship in a partnership programme between the two countries.
Mtenga was killed during the attack and his body was repatriated to Tanzania for burial. Mollel was listed as missing for about two months until a video of him being executed by Hamas surfaced on social media. His body has not yet been recovered, and according to a communication by Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he was studying at the time, it is still being held by Hamas.
Another African hostage is Avera Mengistu, a member of the Ethiopian Jewish community that escaped the civil war in the country and moved to Israel in 1991. Mengistu’s family came from an underprivileged background and after high school he began to experience mental health challenges due to the death of his brother.
Due to his condition he began to wander alone in the countryside. In 2014 he was seen by Israeli authorities near the Israel-Gaza border climbing the fence, disappearing over it into Gaza before they were able to stop him. Mengistu was taken prisoner by Hamas and has been held ever since. His abduction has been a cause for global concern.
Denied visits
Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said Hamas’ refusal to confirm its apparent prolonged detention of men with mental health conditions and no connection to the hostilities is “cruel and indefensible … No grievance or objective can justify holding people incommunicado and bartering over their fates.”
Mengistu has been denied visits by the Red Cross, and access to medication. Even the Pope has tried unsuccessfully to intervene. Though his captivity by Hamas predates the attack of October 7 by a decade, Mengistu is now listed alongside those who are currently being held hostage.
The return of the hostages or their remains poses great difficulty. Occasionally, when intelligence becomes available, the IDF has been able to mount targeted operations to retrieve them. Noa Agamani, who was part of an Israeli delegation to the US Congress in July with three other hostages, was rescued in this fashion in June. However, these operations are difficult to undertake and are a risk to IDF personnel and civilians in Gaza, since hostages are often hidden by Hamas in densely populated civilian areas.
Photoshopped uniform
Another route involves a hostage negotiation in return for, among other things, a pause in combat. Such a negotiation was concluded in November but there has been no further progress since then. Hamas has rejected the latest ceasefire that has been offered. One of the challenges for returning the hostages includes definitions about which of them are considered civilians and which are considered soldiers.
Hamas considers all males over the age of 18 to be military personnel regardless of circumstance. It has referred to Mengistu as a soldier, even though he was considered unfit for military service by the IDF. In 2017 a Human Rights Watch report criticised Hamas for distributing photos of Mengistu in a Photoshopped military uniform. By classifying him as a soldier Hamas places him behind women, children, babies and the elderly in talks over the return of hostages, despite his mental health status.
Understandably, most of the focus of the current negotiations has been on the hostages who are still alive, but returning the bodies of deceased hostages has reportedly also been part of the discussions.
Occasionally, separate deals for hostages with foreign passports have been made outside the main Hamas-Israel negotiations. Should a deal materialise later, it may also provide some hope for families such as that of Mollel, so that his body can be sent back to Tanzania for a dignified burial.
Shulman is executive director of the Middle East Africa Research Institute.