The parents of missing Haimnot Kassa of Safed renewed their demand that the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) be brought into the investigation at a special Knesset hearing on Wednesday, marking two years since her disappearance near an absorption center in the northern city.
The girl’s father said the family has no new information and insisted his daughter was kidnapped from their home, urging that her case be reclassified as an abduction and her photo be publicized widely, similar to the Oct. 7, 2023, hostages.
Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee chair Gilad Kariv said he has asked the police commissioner to reconsider defining the case as a suspected kidnapping and noted that police have again approached the Shin Bet about joining the probe.
Police told lawmakers the file was recently transferred to the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit and is being handled by six investigators, including one Amharic speaker, but stressed they are still reviewing two years’ worth of material and are not close to wrapping up the case.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hosted the missing girl’s family at his office in Jerusalem in December, vowing to do everything in his power to locate her.
Kassa, then 9 years old, was last seen on Feb. 25, 2024, outside the Jewish Agency absorption center, where her family has lived since making aliyah from Ethiopia four years ago. A security camera captured her at the main entrance to the complex, where she had been distributing election pamphlets to residents. She was a third-grader at the Shevet Sofer school in Hatzor Haglilit at the time of her disappearance.
The Jewish Agency is offering a reward of 100,000 shekels (about $27,500) for information leading to her location.
