JERUSALEM, Israel – The Hamas terror group said in a rare announcement on Monday that “the health of one of its Israeli prisoners has deteriorated.”
Hamas is holding two Israeli civilians — Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — who wandered into the Gaza Strip between 2014 and 2015. Rights groups say the two men are mentally ill. The terror group also has the bodies of two Israeli soldiers — Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin — who were killed during Israel’s war with Gaza in 2014.
Repeated attempts to release the captives and return the bodies of the soldiers have failed.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said the announcement from Hamas proved that “it is a cynical and criminal terrorist organization, which holds mentally ill civilians in violation of all international conventions and laws, as well as the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers.”
“The State of Israel will continue its efforts, mediated by Egypt, to bring the captives and the missing back home,” the statement concluded.
Senior Israeli officials who spoke anonymously to the media dismissed the announcement as “psychological warfare.”
One official told the Kan Public Broadcaster “this is a provocation from Hamas” and “we do not recognize any change in their health.”
Hamas has demanded that Israel release hundreds of terror convicts and suspects from Israeli prisons in exchange for the captive Israelis. Such a move would be highly controversial and it is unlikely that an Israeli government would approve it.
In 2011, Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The decision was contentious, and critics believed it favored Hamas too much.
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