Israelis claims hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

Two Israeli citizens are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, a situation that could lead to demands for a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist militant group.

Hamas, which took control of the Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007 and fought three wars with Israel since then, declined to confirm or deny it had the captives.

“We are working for the return of the two Israelis who crossed the border into Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a statement

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Israel’s Defence Ministry identified one of those held as Abraham Mentis, 26, an Israeli of Ethiopian origin.

The other is an Israeli Arab who was not named.

The ministry said it believed Mentis, a resident of Ashkelon, a city close to the Gaza border, had crossed into the coastal territory on foot on September 7, 2014.

It gave no details on how or when the Israeli Arab had entered the territory.

Mengisto’s brother, Ilan, said Avraham was unwell and needed help. In an emotional plea outside the family’s apartment in Ashkelon, he called on Hamas to consider his brother’s medical state and “release him immediately”.

“This is a distressing humanitarian case because my brother is not well,” he said. “I ask the Israeli government to bring him home safely and call on the international community to intervene and to bring its influence to bear for his release.”

Israel has in the past engaged in prisoner swaps with Hamas, most notably in 2011, when Gilad Shalit, a soldier abducted by militants in a cross-border raid in 2006, was released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Dozens of those ex-prisoners have been rounded up by Israel since, outraging Hamas, which signalled that until they were freed again it would refuse to respond to yesterday’s charge that it was holding two Israeli captives.

Israel is separately seeking the return of the remains of two soldiers who were killed during last year’s war with Hamas.

“There will be no talk about a prisoner swap before Israel releases all Palestinians who were re-arrested in the West Bank after they had been freed in the 2011 Shalit deal,” Mahmoud al-Zahar, a top Hamas official, told Reuters.