Mother of American missing in Syria pleads for Israel to help in search
'We urgently request you pause strikes on this area and deploy Israeli assets to search for Austin Tice and other prisoners'
The mother of missing American Austin Tice, Debra Tice, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ask for his assistance in locating her son.
Dated last week, Debra Tice said on Monday that the family has "credible information" her son is being held in a prison near where Israel is conducting airstrikes.
"I think it would be polite, to say the least, that perhaps they’re not bombing while people are trying to clear the prisons," she told reporters during a press conference outside the Syrian embassy in Washington, DC.
The letter said that the family believes Tice "may now be held in a prison called Mount Qasioun prison," which has a secret tunnel connected to the Republican Palace in Damascus's al-Maliki neighborhood.
"We are aware that your military has an active campaign in the area, preventing rescuers from approaching and accessing the prison facility," the letter said. "We have no way of knowing if the prisoners there have food and water. We urgently request you pause strikes on this area and deploy Israeli assets to search for Austin Tice and other prisoners."
In addition, Debra Tice asked Netanyau to "leverage all your relationships and resources to liberate that prison."