By Emily Rose
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Ali Ziadna, from the Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat, has given insulin to the Red Cross, hoping they will give it to his brother who is one of more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 and dragged into captivity in Gaza.
“He’s diabetic,” Ziadna told Reuters in a phone interview after a meeting with the Israeli president in Jerusalem. “Without it, his sugar could drop and he could collapse.”
Ali’s 53-year-old brother Yosef Hamis Ziadna, his sons Hamza and Belal and his daughter Aisha were working on the Holit farm on Israel’s border with Gaza.
Bedouin citizens, who are ethnically Arab and Muslim, make up about 4% of Israel’s total population. They mostly live in the Negev desert and in northern Israel.
Bedouin Head of Regional Council Al-Batuf Ahed Rhall says there are at least 7 other Bedouin civilians thought to be missing but, as some bodies are still being identified, the fate of some remains unclear.
“We are speaking of citizens of Israel and it doesn’t matter if they are Bedouins or Jews – it’s a citizen like any other,” Rhall told Reuters. “I know it’s hard on the families, every minute that goes by is hard, but everyone is waiting for developments and hoping this ends well.”
“They went to milk the cows and then what happened happened and they were kidnapped,” Ziadna said of his family. “We still don’t know what became of them.”
Ziadna said 21 Bedouins were killed by the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel.
He said the Israeli government has paid “very good attention” to their case and government representatives, military, police and psychiatrists had come to their home.
“I don’t understand the military, I’m not a military man. I’m a regular citizen whose brother went to work, my brother only knows how to farm, he and his children went to work,” Ziadna said. “I am praying that everyone comes home in peace.”
(Reporting by Emily Rose; editing by Giles Elgood)
