Harare — In the aftermath of the October 7 bombings in Israel, Hamas has reportedly taken 224 hostages, including two Tanzanians and a South African, according to the Israeli authorities, BBC reports.
The ambassador of Tanzania to Israel acknowledged the hostage-taking of two of its nationals.
All three had not been named until, in an interview with the BBC, the father of a 21-year-old Tanzanian publicly identified his son, Joshua Mollel, who has been missing since Hamas militants attacked the kibbutz (communal living house) he was living in. As of Thursday, October 26, 2023, he had not yet heard anything about the whereabouts of his son.
“The last time I spoke to Joshua was Thursday 5 October,” said his father Loitu Mollel. “I said, ‘Be on your best behaviour because you’re somewhere new, and make the most of the internship you’re there to do,” he reportedly said. Two days later, Hamas launched an attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Joshua Mollel’s new residence which he was leaving for a month since he left the northern Tanzanian home of his family. His entire family is worried since they haven’t spoken with him since October 5 – two days prior to the attack.
The Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) called on the 33 African states that are members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to lobby for a full ICC investigation into reports of grave human rights violations and war crimes in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the African Union, said that Israel committed a “war crime” after the fatal attack on a Gaza Strip hospital on Tuesday, October 17.
“There are no words to fully express our condemnation of Israel’s bombing of a #Gaza hospital today, killing hundreds of people. Targeting a hospital, considered a safe haven under International Humanitarian Law, is a war crime. The International Community must act now,” Mahamat wrote on X.