Israel will not sign any agreement with Gaza unless the remains of two fallen IDF soldiers are returned, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed during a meeting with the Goldin and Shaul families, whose sons were killed during the 2014 Gaza war.
Netanyahu received the Goldin and Shaul families at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Sunday, and updated the families on the efforts being made to return the fallen soldiers' remains from Gaza to Israel, and on the latest developments. The meeting lasted over an hour.
The families raised other courses of action; the Prime Minister instructed his staff to evaluate the possibilities that were raised.
Also attending the meeting were Finance Minister and member of the ministerial committee on captives and MIAs Moshe Kahlon, National Security Council Director Meir Ben-Shabbat, the Prime Minister’s Military Secretary Brig.-Gen. Avi Bluth and Coordinator for Captives and MIAs Yaron Bloom.
Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, both IDF soldiers serving on the Gaza front during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, were killed and their bodies taken into captivity by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Following the meeting, the Goldin family said that the prime minister had promised that Israel would not enter into any agreement with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip unless it provided for the return of the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
Netanyahu also told the families that Israel would not return the bodies of any more terrorists to the Gaza Strip until Shaul and Goldin's remains are returned to Israel.