Rabbi Doron Perez, the CEO of the World Mizrachi movement and the father of Captain Daniel Perez, the 22-year-old soldier who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and whose body has been held by Hamas ever since, addressed the US and the rest of the free world at his son's funeral this afternoon (Monday).
Rabbii Perez began,"I would like to turn to our friends: the United States, the Biden Administration, all our allies, and all fair-minded people in the world. There is only one humanitarian issue, and that is that there are 134 children, men, women, civilians, [and soldiers] who put their lives on the line to do everything they can, like our son, to prevent the loss of life. There should be no conditions. Every single one needs to be returned without any conditions."
"The humanitarian issue will go away in one moment if these people who were stolen and trafficked and traded, will be returned," he said. "The people responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is only Hamas. Hamas, who are happy to hide as cowards underground while their children and while civilians are killed. If Hamas returned the hostages, everything would be over in a minute. They and they alone are responsible for the terrible humanitarian crisis."
He praised Israel and the IDF's success in avoiding causing civilian casualties while fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "We are also responsible. And therefore, what do we do? We discern like no other nation in the history of urban warfare. We differentiate between civilians and between combatants. In the history of urban warfare, there has never been less scenes of fallen combatants to civilians like in this war, even according to Hamas's numbers. We are doing our best. It is time for the world and our friends to say, 'Yes, there's a humanitarian issue. It is Hamas's responsibility. They are wholly responsible for this, and we need to ensure that they return and that the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of October never, ever happen again as Hamas said they will."