Hamas attack: Tanzania announces the death of its 2nd missing national

Tanzania announced on Thursday the death of its second and latest national missing since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, a 21-year-old student.

"We have been informed by the Israeli government that Joshua Mollel, a young Tanzanian studying in Israel with whom we have lost contact since 7 October 2023 (...) was killed immediately after being captured by Hamas", Tanzanian Foreign Minister January Makamba said on X (ex-Twitter).

The government is arranging for Joshua Mollel's relatives, including his father, to travel to Israel to meet the authorities and "obtain more details", Mr Makamba continued.

Two Tanzanian students taking part in the same programme went missing after the attack on 7 October.

In November, the Tanzanian authorities announced the death of the first, 22-year-old Clémence Félix Mtenga, without specifying the circumstances of his death.

Of the 250 or so hostages and bodies taken on 7 October in the Gaza Strip on the day of the Hamas attack, 135 are still being held by Hamas and its allies, according to the latest figures released on Tuesday by the Israeli authorities, before Tanzania announced the death of its second national.

To date, 110 hostages have been released (105 during the seven-day truce at the end of November and five before the truce): 33 minors, 49 adult women and 28 adult men, mainly Thai farm workers.

Since the war began more than two months ago, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has now exceeded 18,600, mainly women, children and people under the age of 18, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Israel promised to destroy Hamas after the massive attack on 7 October by commandos from the Islamist movement who infiltrated southern Israel from Gaza, which left around 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the authorities.