Two teens kidnapped from a Bedouin village in southern Israel are expected to be released on Thursday as Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement to extend their ceasefire for hostages deal now for a seventh day.
The family of Aisha al-Ziadna, 17, and her brother Bilal, 18, were told Thursday that the teens would be part of the seventh round of hostages released, as mediators work on talks to further extend the truce, Ynet news reported.
The family were residents of Rahat, a predominantly Arab Bedouin city just north of Beersheba, and about 18.5 miles from Gaza.
The teens were kidnapped alongside their father Yosef, 49, and their older brother Hamza, 21, while working at Kibbutz Holit’s cowshed.
Yosef and his children were working at the cowshed on Oct. 7 — preparing fodder for the cows and feeding and milking them — when Hamas terrorists entered the kibbutz, their family told Haaretz earlier this month.
Their relatives only learned of the kidnapping from video clips uploaded online by Hamas after they took Bilal and Hamza.
“But we knew that the army had cameras on the road to Gaza, so we asked all the relevant agencies to look at the footage,” Yosef’s brother Ali Al-Ziadna told the outlet.
“They did and spotted them; they brought the footage to our home. It showed all four of them walking – healthy – entering Gaza. You can see them crossing the border fence.”
Ali says he worries for his brother — who is a father of 18 and grandfather of 20 children — because he has diabetes and may not have access to medication. He says he hopes the fact that the family is Muslim will hold some power with their abductors.
“Our children are believers, they pray regularly. I hope their captors realize that these are people who deserve mercy, as does the whole group they’re part of. They’re laborers who work for a living. They went there to make a living, not to fight,” Ali said.
Lt. Col. Wahid al-Huzeil, the head of a nonprofit group that set up a war room to help Bedouin hostages freed, says the fact that Hamas abducted Muslim Israelis makes it clear the war is not religious.
“Hamas wanted to kidnap anybody holding a blue I.D. card,” he told the outlet, referring to the card denoting full Israeli citizenship.
“The fact that Hamas abducted innocent civilians, including women and children, shows that this organization doesn’t represent Islam. It represents only itself. This is a terror group.”
With Post wires.