Netanyahu seeks international help to repatriate Israelis from Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the international community to help his government to repatriate two Israelis “captured by Hamas in the Gaza Strip”, Anadolu reported on Sunday.

“We expect the international community, which has been calling for humanitarian aid for Gaza, to intervene and ask Hamas to offer the simplest humanitarian aid, returning the two Israeli citizens home,” the Israeli prime minister said during his weekly cabinet meeting. “On Friday, I travelled to Ashkelon and met the family of Avraham Mangistu. We will do our best to get him back. We are in contact with the family of the other lost Israeli.” The identity of the second person is being kept secret by the Israeli government, other than that he is from a “minority”.

On Thursday, the Israeli authorities announced that an Israeli was lost in the Gaza Strip during last year’s offensive. They called for him to be returned after accusing Hamas of capturing him. The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, whose stronghold is the Gaza Strip, is maintaining its silence about the issue.

Nevertheless, Hamas spokespersons have said repeatedly that they will not talk with the Israelis about a prisoner swap until all Palestinian political prisoners who were freed under such an agreement in 2011 and then rearrested, have been given their freedom.