The family of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, whose body has been held by Hamas in Gaza since 2014, on Sunday evening sharply criticized Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s new plan for stabilizing relations between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
"Yair Lapid, the Foreign Minister of the State of Israel, has removed the entire issue of bringing back the boys from his political plan. No word on this issue. Shame and disgrace," tweeted the family.
"During Operation Protective Edge they abandoned the fighters - now they are abandoning their families. This is not how a sovereign state behaves. This is not how a country that wants to win behaves. You have the opportunity to correct, not to do exactly what your predecessors did in office," the family wrote.
Lapid earlier laid out his vision for massive economic growth in the Gaza Strip in exchange for help from the international community and the Palestinian Authority to ensure that the Hamas terrorist organization which rules the Strip does not use aid money to rearm.
Dubbing the plan’s formula “economy-for-security”, Lapid said the program amounts to a “more realistic version” of the previous “rehabilitation for demilitarization” formula.
Under his plan, Israel would allow for a significantly expanded aid package to rebuild the Gaza Strip, while the international community “will use its influence over Hamas to assist in the efforts to stop Hamas arming itself. It will work to strengthen efforts to prevent smuggling and an economic oversight mechanism will be put into place to prevent resources going to Hamas.”
The Palestinian Authority will be given control of the border crossings between Gaza and Israel, Lapid continued, with the PA ultimately becoming “a central operating and supervising body, and which will be enshrined through a UN Security Council resolution.”
In stage two, an artificial island will be constructed for the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the opening of a massive port serving the enclave. Donations will also be used to build “industrial and employment zones” near the Israeli border along the Erez crossing.
Furthermore, Israel will permit the construction of a “transportation link” across its territory connecting the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria.