The family of missing IDF officer, 1st Lt. Hadar Goldin, responded negatively Monday evening to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's interview to the Palestinian-Arab newspaper Al Quds. The remains of Goldin and Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, both MIAs and presumed dead, are being held by Hamas.
"It is disappointing to see that the minister in charge of bringing Hadar and Oron purposely avoided mentioning them in an interview that he granted to a central Palestinian newspaper," said the family.
"It induces despair, to see how much Liberman has softened since he entered his office," the family added. "The person who gave [Hamas kingpin Ismail] Haniyeh 48 hours to return the abducted soldiers and civilians from Gaza, now wants to urn Gaza into Singapore."
"The Israeli government – and the Defense Minister in particular – are responsible for placing continuous pressure on Hamas in order to bring Oron and Hadar back to Israel, and not to give the public the feeling that they have been forgotten in Sejaiya and Rafiah," the family said, referencing the locations in which the two men went missing during the IDF's 2014 Gaza operation.
"We will be the first to invest in a port, and airport and industrial zones", Liberman told the Jerusalem-based Al Quds, "if Hamas stops digging tunnels, stockpiling arms and firing rockets. We will lift the siege and build the port and airport ourselves." He also warned Hamas against another round of fighting. "If they force a new war on us, it will be Hamas' last, because we will completely destroy them," he said.