"You have black people in Palestine. You know who you have? You have my brother, Avera Mengistu, an Israeli black boy who crossed the border with Gaza six years ago without knowing what he was doing because he is mentally ill, and he is held captive by Hamas for the last six years," Enav Baruch Mekonen said in a Tik Tok video.
@einavbaruchmekonentהגב ל-@applecider2070 ##fact ##tiktok ##FYP ##BLM FREE AVERA MANGISTO!!!!!
♬ צליל מקורי - Einav Baruch Mekonen
Mekonen called on those who support the "Black Lives Matter" movement to take action and urge Hamas to free Ethiopian-Israeli Mengistu, who had been held captive since he crossed into the coastal enclave in September 2014.
"He is not an IDF soldier, he is not a terrorist, he is mentally ill and he's being held by the Hamas, in Gaza," she continued.
"Palestinians can you speak up? Can I hear you? Am I lying?" she is asking. "Why won't you let him go? A mentally ill black boy?"
Some 2,192 days have passed since his capture, around eight months longer than the 1,941 days that Gilad Shalit spent as a prisoner.
"What are you going through there at night?" asks a song by Eden Alene, Israel's representative to Eurovision 2021, together with Shlomi Shabat, to mark the six years since Mengistu was taken captive by Hamas after he crossed into the Gaza Strip.
"We hope and pray that he'll return to us because he belongs with us," said Shabat in a clip about the song.
Besides Mengistu, another Israeli citizen is currently held captive by Hamas in the Strip – Hisham al-Sayed – as well as the bodies of Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, kept by Hamas as bargaining chips.