President Reuven Rivlin left Berlin for Israel on Thursday after the ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz Birkenau and his historic speech in Hebrew at the Bundestag.
Rivlin invited the parents of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, whose bodies have been held by Hamas for over five years in Gaza, to join him in Berlin.
Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, noted that the parents met the Foreign and Defense Ministers, Senior Bundestag Members and officials.
“Every effort must be made to pressure Hamas to enable their return home,” he wrote on Twitter.
Hamas has been holding the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul since the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
In addition, two Israeli civilians who went missing in Gaza - Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed - are believed to be held by Hamas as well.
In recent years Hamas has preconditioned the release of captive Israeli soldiers and civilians on Israel releasing prisoners who were previously released in the Shalit deal and rearrested after resuming terrorist activity.