Hamas passed video to captured Israeli: Rights activist

By Abdel Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM

Hamas has delivered a videotape to an Israeli soldier who it has been holding since 2014, an Israeli rights activist claimed Tuesday.

Ran Goldstein, the head of the Israel-based Physicians for Human Rights, told the state-run Israeli Broadcasting Corporation that Hamas had told him that “the video sent by the family of Avraham Mengistu to their son about two years ago has been passed on”.

Goldstein did not say when Hamas had conveyed this information to him, asserting that he had kept the news to himself for a while “for fear that revealing it could harm attempts to obtain information about his [Mengistu’s] condition”.

Hamas has yet to respond to Goldstein's latest assertions.

Born in Ethiopia, Mengistu is an Israeli resident of the city of Ashkelon near the Gaza Strip. In 2014, Mengistu reportedly disappeared into the Palestinian territory.

Last year, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, announced it had received an Israeli offer for a prisoner swap.

Israel says two soldiers and two civilians, including Mengistu, have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2014, when Israel launched a devastating military assault on the blockaded Palestinian enclave.