Participants in a rally in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday demanded that the bodies of soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were abducted by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in 2014, be returned as part of any ceasefire agreement.
“My son, Hadar Goldin, was killed and kidnapped in the humanitarian ceasefire during [Operation] Protective Edge,” said Goldin’s mother, Leah, arguing in a Channel 12 news interview on Wednesday night that Israel sends humanitarian aid to Gaza, but they don't have the mercy to return her son's body. “Now, when there will be a ceasefire, he needs to be returned... We must make the return of the boys the first and absolute condition of the ceasefire.”She added that the parties urging a ceasefire now, namely The United States, Egypt, and Qatar are the same nations involved in the UN's brokered humanitarian ceasefire in 2014, when Hadar Goldin was killed."Biden owes us Hadar, that's his moral debt," she said in the interview, noting that "this is the window of opportunity."
Leah Goldin has campaigned to bring her son’s body back from Gaza for seven years and said she hopes Operation Guardian of the Walls will make that happen.
The operation has destroyed the Hamas tunnels that were used to abduct Goldin’s body.
“I represent all of the mothers of IDF soldiers... mothers who were promised that no soldiers would be left behind," Leah Goldin said. “Again the cries of war...this time they call it Guardian of the Walls, [but] for us, the cries of war have sounded for seven years,” she continued, saying that Operation Protective Edge cannot end until the bodies are finally returned.
