Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would not return the held bodies of five Palestinian terrorists to its enemies unless Hamas gives up the remains of IDF soldiers being held in Gaza.
Speaking in Migdal Ha’Emek, where he was attending the signing of a new masterplan for the town, Netanyahu appeared to hint that Israel would not return the bodies of five Islamic Jihad terrorists found on the Israeli side of the border when the IDF demolished a cross-border tunnel on October 30th, unless significant progress was made regarding remains of Israeli soldiers being held in Gaza.
“There are no free gifts. We will bring our boys home. I’ll say it again, there are no free gifts,” Netanyahu said.
In what appeared to be a response to Islamic Jihad, which issued a statement Sunday saying that the “bodies would not remain in Israel’s hands for long,” Netanyahu said, “We have a mission to defend the land and we do so with one simple rule: Whoever attempts to attack us, we will attack them.”
Earlier Monday, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio: “It should be perfectly clear – We will not transfer any bodies of terrorists without the remains of IDF soldiers being returned to the state of Israel.”
Katz also commented on a petition to the High Court for Justice filed Sunday by the family of Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose remains have been held by Hamas in Gaza since the war of 2014.
“The Goldin family didn’t need to petition the High Court, since we are against the return of the bodies of terrorists,” Katz said.
Despite the declarations of Katz and other recent similar declarations by cabinet members, the Goldin family is growing increasingly frustrated with the situation which has not progressed much over the past three years.
“Our assumption is that a government that sends soldiers to battle needs to bring them back as well, and if they don’t, the public and the soldier’s families need to apply pressure,” Goldin’s father, Simcha, told Army Radio Monday.
“We’re demanding that the government come to the High Court and explain why it is not implementing its own policy in regard to the bodies,” he added.
