The family of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, whose body has been held by the Hamas terrorist organization since 2014, is headed on a protest march towards the Gaza Strip.
Simcha Goldin, Hadar’s father, recounted the difficult feelings after eight years in which Hadar and Oron Shaul, another soldier whose body is held by Hamas, have not returned home.
"On Tuesday, the fifth of Av, we will mark eight years since the fall and abduction of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin in Operation Protective Edge and the fact that for the past eight years all Israeli governments, Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett as Prime Minister and now Yair Lapid as Prime Minister, have failed to bring the soldiers back from enemy hands," Goldin told Israel National News.
"The situation is particularly serious now that the Minister of Defense of the State of Israel is Benny Gantz, who was the Chief of Staff of Protective Edge. He abandoned these two soldiers on the battlefield. A year ago he commanded Operation Guardian of the Walls against the same enemy in the same place, and neither planned nor cared to bring the soldiers back. That's why we're going on a protest march to show the public that there are only 100 kilometers between the Goldin family's home in Kfar Saba and the Gaza border," he added.
"We will walk a hundred kilometers for three days, to the fence, to Gaza," Goldin said. "We will show everyone what this distance is and people will understand what entered Gaza in all these eight years while no one demands the return of the soldiers."
Asked whether the public would join the protest march on such hot summer days, he replied, "We go and do our thing. I need the public to understand that we need actions here and not just likes and prayers, because otherwise this will become the rule, no soldiers will be brought back from the battlefield. For the past eight years, the governments and the army have not fought to bring the soldiers back. This is not a situation which can continue because we have a few more tasks waiting for us on the way. That's why we are marching."
Is it possible that the fact that all the Prime Ministers behaved in a similar way shows that the task is more complex than it seems?
"It's certainly not about left and right," replied Goldin. "The army is above this and it has a solution, and that solution is to stop being afraid. Netanyahu, Bennett and Lapid are suffering from post-trauma because of Hamas, they fear it to death. It is a fact that after Operation Guardian of the Walls, Benny Gantz declared that it would be rehabilitation in exchange for prisoners, and in the last year he has been rehabilitating Gaza wonderfully, gives them everything they want but does not bring the captives. We need to root out this fear. It is inconceivable that the governments of Israel and the Chief of Staff, who became the Minister of Defense, will be afraid of our enemy who is in Gaza today, abducting soldiers and doing whatever it wants, firing rockets and burning the fields in the south. This needs to be stopped, and if the governments don't stop it, we'll show them how to do it, and we're starting it with the march to Gaza."