Father of Israeli soldier lost in Gaza calls for Hamas’s demands to be fulfilled

The father of an Israeli soldier lost in the Gaza Strip during last year’s Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave called for the government to fulfil Hamas’s demands in order that he may be returned, local media reported yesterday.

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported the father of Aron Shaul, one of the Israeli soldiers lost during the offensive in Gaza, saying: “No solution for the lost soldiers is in the horizon except through the fulfilment of Hamas’s demands.”

“Hamas must get everything it needs in return for returning our sons even if they asked for the release of thousands of prisoners… We have to give them everything even if they asked for the release of Marwan Barghouti.”

He continued: “Barghouti will be released in the future and the day which [Hamas chief Khaled] Meshaal has promised is coming, but I do not know when. It might come after a [prisoner] swap or after a war.”

“All I know is that the one who sent our sons to war has to return them dead or alive.”