(22 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 22 February 2025
1. Prof. Gil Fire, Medical Associate to the Director General of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) at lectern:
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Prof. Gil Fire, Medical Associate to the Director General of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov):
“Good evening. During the day, Avera Mangistu and Hisham Al-Sayed arrived to our hospital, having returned home to Israel after more than 10 years of captivity by Hamas. The circumstances of their prolonged captivity and their return after so many years create significant complexity. We feel a great privilege and responsibility in being chosen to lead the handling of these complexities that we have not encountered before.”
3. Logo of Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov)
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Prof. Gil Fire, Medical Associate to the Director General of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov):
“According to our initial examinations, that we have already conducted, both Hisham and Avera arrived in overall good physical condition, which has already allowed them to meet with their families after such a prolonged and harrowing wait. We will continue to assess the condition of Hisham and Avera in the coming days and beyond, a situation that embodies, as mentioned, great complexity, not only physical.”
5. Fire leaving at end of statement
STORYLINE:
An Israeli hospital official said Saturday that physical condition of two released hostages held captive in Gaza for years is “overall good."
Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Avera Mengistu, 38, were freed earlier on Saturday.
Despite being in good physical condition, their prolonged captivity in Gaza has created a "significant complexity" in their situation, according toProfessor Gil Fire of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center.
"We will continue to assess the condition of Hisham and Avera in the coming days and beyond, a situation that embodies, as mentioned, great complexity, not only physical," he told a media briefing.
Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli from Ashkelon, entered Gaza in 2014. His family told Israeli media he has struggled with mental health issues.
They had no idea if he was alive for nine years until Hamas released a video of him in January 2023.
Hisham Al-Sayed crossed on his own into Gaza in 2015 and had been held since.
He grew up in Al-Sayed, a small Bedouin Arab village near the city of Hura in the Negev Desert.
In 2022, Hamas published a video showing him lying in bed with an oxygen mask, though he was conscious.
His father told Human Rights Watch that Al-Sayed had run away from home on many occasions.
His family told Israeli media he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
AP video by Alon Bernstein
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