Israeli officials, family, say the video shown on Al Jazeera of an “Israeli hostage” held by the terror group is fake.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Israel officials on Sunday dismissed a Hamas video that was shown on the Al Jazeera network saying Hamas had faked the attempt to show they were holding a live Israeli soldier hostage.

The Iran-backed terror group is holding two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers hostage in Gaza in an attempt to trade them for over one thousand convicted terrorists being held in Israeli jails.

The government coordinator for the release of the hostages, Yaron Blum, dismissed the video as a cheap psychological trick by Hamas trying to play on Israeli public sentiment.

“Hamas is in distress after the severe blows it received in Operation Guardian of the Walls and is attempting cheap and transparent manipulation here,” Blum said. “Israel is well aware of the plight of the sons Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul … and of the two civilians Avraham ​​Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed who crossed the border while alive.”

In the 11 days of conflict last month, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terror group lost over hundred dead, and the IDF claimed it destroyed a large part of the vast underground tunnel network the two groups had spent years building. On the Israeli side, only one IDF soldier was killed in the conflict, and Blum estimated that Hamas was under pressure to show some results to Palestinians to offset the losses.

In the recording, a voice speaking accented Hebrew claims to be an Israeli soldier being held captive by Hamas and says he wonders “if Israel still exists… I am dying every day. I feel the hope to be near my family beating in my heart. Please help me.”

Neither Mengistu nor al-Sayed, both of whom suffer mental health issues, served in the IDF, and Mengistu’s mother said the recording was definitely not her son.

“I heard the tape like everyone else, and I can say unequivocally that it is not my son, it is not his voice. I am waiting for my son and hope to meet him soon as I was promised all the time,” Agarnesh Mengistu told Kan News.

The Al Jazeera report included new video footage of former IDF hostage Gilad Shalit while he was a Hamas prisoner, showing him in captivity doing some exercises. Captured in a 2006 border attack in which two other IDF soldiers were killed, Shalit was held hostage for five years before being released in a 2011 exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails, including many who had committed multiple murders.

Hamas bars the International Red Cross from checking on the hostages as required under international law. The Israeli blogger who goes by the code name Abu Ali Express noted that in 2009, Israel released a group of 20 Palestinian female prisoners in order to get a videotape showing that Shalit was alive.

“Mangisto’s voice tape was given to Israel free of charge. This is to put pressure on public opinion in Israel,” the blogger said. “This may indicate that Hamas thinks that the chances of a deal are greater now than in the past and therefore provided a ‘free gift’ unlike in the Shalit case.”

The post Israel dismisses Hamas video of alleged Israeli prisoner as fake appeared first on World Israel News.

Israel rejected reports by a Hamas-affiliated newspaper in Lebanon that Norway had sent an emissary to Gaza last month to negotiate a deal.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An unnamed senior Israeli official flatly denied Monday night that Norway is involved in indirect negotiations with Hamas to return the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and two live civilians from the Gaza Strip.

The Lebanese al-Akhbar daily had claimed Monday that a Norwegian envoy had gone to the Gaza Strip in September to talk about the return of Hadar Goldin and Oren Shaul’s remains, which the terror organization has been holding since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, two mentally unstable Israeli young men who had crossed over into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 respectively, would also be part of the alleged prisoner exchange. The report said that the diplomat had even gotten “a positive response” from Hamas.

However, senior Hamas officials also denied the report, according to Haaretz, saying that the issue is mainly being handled by the Egyptians and Germans, as well as Nikolai Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

Already back in July, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Germany had been trying for three years to mediate between Israel and Hamas for a prisoner exchange deal, but the talks have gone nowhere.

According to al-Akhbar, Hamas has stuck to its long-held position that a precondition to even beginning negotiations would be the Israeli release of all the prisoners who had been rearrested for terrorism following their release in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.

Hamas has other conditions as well, which Israel has refused to countenance.

The Goldin and Shaul families have been vociferous and public in their criticism of the prime minister and the government for not putting enough pressure on Hamas to get their sons’ bodies back. The Goldins have even turned to the Supreme Court to try to force the government to adhere to a cabinet decision made in April that conditions the return of Hamas terrorists’ bodies for burial on the return of their own sons.

The post Israel debunks Norway’s role in return of soldiers’ bodies from Hamas appeared first on World Israel News.

The family of slain soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin called on the government not to release bodies of Gaza gunmen killed on Friday until their son’s body and that of Oron Shaul are returned.

By: Steve Leibowitz, World Israel News

Reports that Israel is holding the bodies of two Hamas terrorists killed in clashes with IDF soldiers on Friday, has prompted demands that the bodies be held as bargaining chips to secure the remains of Israeli soldiers Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul. The remains of the two soldiers have been held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since the 2014 war.

Goldin’s father Simcha said, “Israel has to use the bodies as a bargaining chip with Hamas and hold onto them until a solution has been found and the soldiers are returned.” Hamas is also holding two live, apparently mentally ill Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza volultarily in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

The family of Mengistu today launched a tent protest outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, calling on the government to bring Abera back from Hamas captivity.

The Goldin family contacted the government’s point person for return of the two soldier’s bodies Yaron Blum, and Israel’s military coordinator to the Palestinians, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai. The family is demanding that the government abide by a decision it passed last year, barring the return of terrorist’s bodies to their families as long as the soldier’s remains are not returned.

The IDF identified a number of those killed during the Gaza riot on Friday as Hamas members. One of the Hamas terrorists who shot at Israeli soldiers on Friday evening was identified as 23-year-old Mussa’b al-Saloul. The Palestinian media claims that Israeli soldiers retrieved the bodies of two gunmen who opened fire on Israeli forces on Friday, and claim the remains are being held by Israeli authorities.

The post Victim’s family: Hold Gaza gunmen’s bodies until son’s remains returned appeared first on World Israel News.