Professor Simcha Goldin
Professor Simcha GoldinSraya Diamant/TPS

Leah and Simcha Goldin, the parents of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, responded on Monday to the Supreme Court's ruling that the state is permitted to hold bodies of terrorists as a means of advancing the return of missing IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.

"Following the ruling, Netanyahu and his government are running out of excuses as to why they fold time and time again and return bodies of terrorists for burial. The Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, made a series of decisions on how to pressure Hamas to promote the boys' return, but the Prime Minister and the Israeli government are refraining from using all possible levers to turn the holding of the boys from an asset into a burden," the two said.

They added that "the Supreme Court's decision explicitly states that Netanyahu and the government have full legitimacy to continue holding the bodies of terrorists until Hadar, Oron [Shaul], Avera [Mengistu] and Hisham [Sayed] are returned home."

The Supreme Court ruled earlier on Monday that the IDF may hold terrorists’ bodies for negotiation purposes.

The ruling stated that the IDF is allowed to decide where enemy bodies are buried and to bury them in temporary graves.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) responded: "I applaud the Supreme Court's decision, which righted a previous decision. A lowly terrorist is not deserving of honor either in his life or his death. You cannot demand the State of Israel honor the bodies of Hamas terrorists, while terrorist organizations retain the bodies of our soldiers. The government must be allowed to pressure the terror organizations in order to bring back the bodies of our fallen ones and bring back our citizens. Our hands must not be tied in the war against terrorists."