Tzur Goldin, the twin brother of Hadar Goldin, whose body has been held in Gaza by the Hamas terrorist organization since Operation Protective Edge in 2014, lauded the IDF's refusal to allow Hamas retrieve the bodies of terrorists that were killed in the terror tunnel bombed by Israel on Monday unless Hamas releases more information regarding the bodies of slain IDF soldiers killed in 2014's Operation Protective Edge.
Hamas had appealed to Israel through the Red Cross on Wednesday and requested permission to retrieve the bodies of terrorists who died from smoke inhalation after the IDF blew up a terror tunnel from Khan Yunis, in Gaza, into Israel on Monday. The terror group is unable to reach the bodies due to Israel's ban on Gazans from coming with 300 meters of Israel's security perimeter on the border.
'This is the opportunity we have been waiting for in order to bring back Hadar and Oron," Goldin told Channel 2, referring to Oron Shaul, whose body Hamas has also been holding.
"My brother was kidnapped in an incident involving tunnels and now we have here an incident regarding tunnels," Goldin continued. "Anyone who doesn't use this incident to return Hadar isn't trying."
Goldin said that Israel needed to put Hamas on the defensive. "We need to change this equation- they should be deterred doing anything, not us. We're into the fourth year since my brother was killed and this is the first time that a government is not taking significant steps to bring home a missing person."
Oron Shaul's mother Zahava had echoed Tzur Goldin's sentiments that the government is not doing enough to return the bodies, saying on Wednesday that she had asked Netanyahu to reveal to her all of the information regarding her missing son, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge's Battle of Shuja'iyya.
On the day before Yom Kippur, Shaul spoke with Netanyahu and said, "I ask you to intervene and instruct the IDF to give me the information about my son. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the families of the missing veterans of Sultan Yacoub to be given all the information without exception. If Begin could give such an order - you can too."
According to the Channel 10 report, Netanyahu explained to Shaul that times have changed since the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub and promised to examine the issue.
"As a mother, I have the right to know. I will not give up," she said. "I'm sure of one thing - that from their point of view they prefer me to be quiet so that it will stay that way. But I'm not prepared to accept that."