UN chief meets with families of Hamas captives
The families of Oron Shaul, Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed—a fallen soldier and two Israeli civilians who are currently held captive by Hamas—meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and ask for his personal involvement in the return of their sons.
UN Secretary General António Guterres met Monday evening with the families of the captives held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Sergeant Oron Shaul—who is presumed dead—and civilians Abera Mengistu and Hisham Shaaban al-Sayed.
The family members asked Guterres for his personal involvement in promoting the return of their children to Israel.
Abera Mengistu's mother, Agernash, burst into tears at the meeting and told the secretary general: "I have no life without my son. I have no day and no night. I ask you to help bring my son home. I ask you not to leave the Gaza Strip without a sign of life from my son Abera and a demand to Hamas for his immediate release."
Zahava Shaul, mother of Oron Shaul, told the secretary general: "My husband has already died and I am still waiting for an answer. I ask you to put pressure on (the leaders in) the strip when you visit there on Wednesday."
The UN Secretary General promised the families to take care of the issue personally and through UN agencies to bring about the release of the Israelis held by Hamas.
The Mengistu family asked the secretary general to set up a UN task force to deal with the humanitarian situation of Abera and the other prisoners until they returned home.
"The case of Abera is a humanitarian issue of the highest order. An innocent civilian who has nothing to do with the conflict and is held captive in violation of all the laws and conventions that you have set," the Mengistu family told the secretary general.
Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who was present at the meeting, said that "Hamas holds our soldiers and our citizens with unbridled cruelty. The UN must act to return them to Israel."
Lieutenant Hadar Goldin's family did not attend the meeting because it is expected to meet Guterres in New York in two weeks.
The issue of captive soldiers and civilians in Gaza has been raised in all the meetings of the Secretary General in Israel—with President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major General Yoav Mordechai and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.
