Netanyahu to Families of Missing Soldiers: 'We Will Not Rest Until We Return Your Sons'

Jerusalem, 11 May, 2016 (TPS) -- Jerusalem (TPS) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to return the bodies of soldiers held by Hamas in Gaza, speaking at the ceremony honoring Israel’s fallen soldiers on Memorial Day at the Mount Herzl National Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.

‘‘We will not rest until we return your sons,’’ Netanyahu said, speaking directly to the the families of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, two soldiers declared dead by the IDF during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip still holds their bodies and refers to them as “captives.”

“We are working tirelessly to bring these boys back home and will do everything within our power to ensure their return,” Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the cases.

Netanyahu also struck a deeply personal note at the ceremony.

“My family has been carrying the burden of bereavement for 40 years. We are the not the first family nor will we be the last, tragically. Every family goes through its own personal grief, but they all share the same hellish torment,” Netanyahu lamented.  

Netanyahu lost his older brother Jonathan, a legendary commander who was killed while freeing Israeli and Jewish hostages during the daring Entebbe Operation in 1976 in Uganda.  

“Every time I am required to decide an action that puts soldiers’ lives at risk, and it happens daily, I weigh the matter with difficulty. I consider it with my mind but also with my heart,” said Netanyahu during the service. “Since, every time I am notified of a loss of life my heart tears apart with the heart of the family of the fallen.”

Netanyahu’s remarks come only a few days after Hadar Goldin’s father made an emotional and public plea to the Israeli government to take decisive action toward returning the two soldiers’ bodies.

Late in 2015, Oron Shaul’s mother, Zehava, petitioned the prime minister to reexamine her son’s case, expressing doubt about the army’s determination that he was killed.

“We have no solid or reliable information that Oron is alive or dead,” she said. “We are in a state of uncertainty.”