Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian-born Israeli, was detained in 2014 after crossing into Gaza on his own.

AFTER an entire decade of harrowing uncertainty, Avera Mengistu is home at last. The Ethiopian-born Israeli hostage, who spent a harrowing 3,821 days in Hamas captivity, was released in Rafah on

Civilians Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu had a history of mental illness, according to comments from their families and a 2017 report from Human Rights Watch.

Five of the captives were handed over in staged ceremonies that the Red Cross and Israel have condemned in the past — brought out by masked, armed Hamas fighters in front of hundreds of Palestinians before being transferred to Red Cross vehicles.

Hamas has publicly paraded long-held Israeli hostage Avera Mengistu and fellow captive Tal Shoham in Rafah, just as the final swap of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas hostage exchange begins. The disturbing display comes amid heightened tensions,