The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) holds four Israeli prisoners, including two soldiers who were captured during the war on the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014. As for the other two, they entered the Gaza Strip in unclear circumstances. The movement does not disclose the fate of the four detainees and the place of their detention is not known.
And in June 2021, the official Israeli channel, Kan, said that Tel Aviv requires the return of its four prisoners, before any reconstruction process begins in the Strip, which is home to more than two million Palestinians and has been besieged by Israel since the summer of 2006.
As for Hamas, it rejects the link between the reconstruction process and the exchange of prisoners, and insists on making a deal according to its terms, represented in the liberation of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Who are the four captives?
Shaul Aaron
Shaul Aaron was born on December 27, 1993, and resided in the Poriya settlement in the Nazareth area, according to Israeli sources.
Aron joined the ranks of the Israeli army, worked in the elite brigade on the border with the Gaza Strip, and participated in the war on Gaza in 2014.
Al-Qassam Brigades fighters captured Aaron in an operation against the Israeli army east of Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza, on July 20, 2014, and this operation resulted in the killing of 14 Israeli soldiers.
Israel did not announce the soldier’s capture, except after the Al-Qassam Brigades announced this in a tape broadcast by its spokesman, Abu Obeida, where he published his military number.
Israel says Aaron was killed, but his family refuses to accept this account.
Since his capture until now, Hamas has not provided any information about him.
Soldier Hadar Golden
Private Hadar Golden was born on February 18, 1991.
Golden holds the rank of second lieutenant, the Givati Brigade in the IDF, and is the cousin of Moshe Ya'alon, the former Israeli defense minister.
Golden was captured by Hamas, in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 1, 2014, during the war.
Hamas did not immediately announce Goldin's abduction, but it later admitted its responsibility after the war.
In response to the kidnapping, Israel committed a massacre in Rafah. It carried out indiscriminate shelling of citizens' homes, killing more than 100 Palestinians, including children and women.
Avira Mengistu
Avira Mengistu was born in Ethiopia on August 22, 1986.
His family immigrated to Israel when he was 5 years old and resided in Ashkelon.
Mengistu crossed the fence separating Israel and the northern Gaza Strip, on September 7, 2014, and since then its traces have disappeared.
His family says he is mentally disturbed, and in March 2013 he was released from military service for this reason.
His family accused the Israeli government several times of deliberately neglecting their son, and of not demanding his return for racist reasons, as he is black and of Ethiopian origin.
Al-Qassam Brigades said, in a press statement, in July 2019 that Israel did not demand the return of Mengistu, through the mediators who spoke to it about the detainees.
Hisham El Sayed
In the Palestinian interior, Arab sources mention that Hisham al-Sayed (a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship) lived in the village of Hoora in the Negev, and he was 29 years old when he was detained.
According to the Israeli organization, Maslak, al-Sayed entered the Gaza Strip on April 20, 2015, through a gap in the fence separating Israel and the northern Gaza Strip, without knowing anything about his fate since then.
Sources inside the Palestinian territories mention that al-Sayed completed his secondary education and volunteered to serve in the Israeli army in August 2008, but was discharged in November 2008 because he was not suitable for service.
On June 28, 2022, the Al-Qassam Brigades showed scenes of the prisoner Hisham Al-Sayed lying on a bed in a state of fatigue and breathing through medical equipment, and ID cards that included his date of birth and military number.