Two Israeli Men Held Captive by Hamas

On July 9, Israeli officials revealed that two Israeli citizens are being held in Gaza. They think that Hamas is holding at least one of them captive.

Avraham Mangisto, a 28-year-old Ethiopian-born Israeli, is believed to be a captive of Hamas. He was captured in Gaza after sneaking across the border on September 7, 2014, two weeks after last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas ended. Israeli troops saw him enter Gaza through the border fence next to the Zikim beach, just north of Gaza and just south of Ashkelon, where he lives. They thought he was a Palestinian trying to return to the territory and saw that he was unarmed, so they did not attempt to stop him. After entering Gaza, Mangisto walked to the south and met with Palestinian fishermen. He left a suitcase holding a Hebrew bible on the beach that was later discovered by Israeli soldiers.

The name of the second Israeli has not been released. He is Bedouin and comes from the town of Hura in the Negev desert. He reportedly crossed into Gaza three months ago and has entered Jordan, Egypt, and Gaza in the past.

Israeli officials have been trying to locate Mangisto for months, but they have been unable to do so. President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement that “This is a humanitarian matter and I expect those holding him to treat him properly and to return him in full health.”

Israel finally allowed the media to report on this story on Thursday, following statements on Wednesday made by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal that implied the group has been holding the two Israelis and the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed during last summer’s war. A spokesman for Hamas said that he does not have information about the whereabouts of the two men and could not talk about it if he did. An Israeli negotiator said that Hamas claims to have detained Mangisto but to have then released him because “he was not mentally stable.” He allegedly refused to return to Israel and instead entered Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula in an attempt to go to Ethiopia. Israeli officials reject these claims. The Bedouin man may also be in Hamas custody.

Mangisto was described by his brother as being in bad health and Israeli security officials said that the Bedouin man struggles with minor psychological issues.

The reasons behind the lifting of the gag order are unclear because Israel originally hoped to keep media attention away from the case of the captive men. It has a record of going to extraordinary means to free its citizens held in captivity by Hamas; for example, one must consider the 2011 release of Gilad Shalit, who was in Hamas custody for five years. To secure Shalit’s freedom, Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, a number of whom have been re-arrested.

Hamas has a history of capitalizing off of the extremes to which Israel will go to free kidnapped citizens. Last summer, Hamas operatives in the West Bank, motivated by the desire to kidnap Israelis to free Palestinian prisoners, captured and killed Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach near Hebron. The men who carried out the attack raised $60,000 to buy two cars and four guns: a car for the kidnapping, a car to serve as a getaway vehicle, two M-16 rifles, and two pistols. Although Hamas praised the capture and killing, it never officially accepted responsibility for the operation in order to maintain a degree of plausible deniability. Despite their denial of having ordered the attack, a former Hamas military activist said, “An operation of this kind is complicated both from a security and military standpoint. It is undoubtedly the handiwork of a large organization that has a network in place to help move the kidnappees and provide them with safe shelter, food, sleeping arrangements as well as security. It is not difficult to imagine which Palestinian organization possesses such an infrastructure.” Additionally, the head of Hamas’ West Bank operations, Saleh al-Arouri, admitted at a conference of Hamas officials and the International Union of Muslim Scholars that he orchestrated the murder of the three boys. Hamas knew that its operatives had both ordered and carried out the attack, but after Israel reacted swiftly and harshly and the boys were found dead, the organization chose to deny the attack to try to save face and paint itself as a victim of Israeli aggression.

In order to maintain the upper hand in its relationship with Hamas, Israel should not let Mangisto or the Bedouin man become Hamas’ bargaining tools, used to release another large quantity of prisoners who will continue to commit crimes and acts of terrorism after they are freed. It is not bargaining with a state actor. Rather, Israel is engaged in negotiations with a terrorist organization whose mission is to destroy it. It must never forget this, even as it works to secure the freedom of the two captive men.