According to Ngusei Mola, the nation’s former deputy speaker and former member of the National Assembly, at least two Ethiopian-born Jews were slain by a historic attack by Hamas on Israel last Friday.
He believed that “there are many bodies in hospitals and the investigation has not been completed, and the number may increase.”
Many Ethiopians with Ethiopian ancestry are reported to be employed by the Israeli military and security services; Samuel Golima, a soldier, and Orel Abraham, a fictitious policeman, both died in the fighting.
Orel Abraham’s wife, a police officer, posted on social media that her husband had been killed and pleaded with the authorities to find his body. A different soldier from the nation’s army, Samuel Golimam, allegedly died in battle with Hamas militants.
The death toll surged to almost 1,000 since Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel with a barrage of rockets and a large-scale ground assault, officials on both sides of the war zone said on Sunday.
The conflict’s worst escalation in decades has claimed more than 600 lives on the Israeli side, the government press office said, while Gaza officials reported at least 390 deaths, with thousands more wounded on each side.
Thousands of Israeli forces were deployed to battle holdout Hamas fighters in the south and the airforce again pounded targets in the Gaza Strip as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult” war ahead.