Captive soldier’s mother slams Israeli officials

The mother of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin, who was captured in Gaza during the major military offensive in 2014, slammed officials on Friday for failing to get him back, local media reported. Leah Goldin sent an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset, accusing them of not being serious about enabling the return of her son and other soldiers lost in Gaza.

According to Ynet News, Netanyahu refused to allow Mrs Goldin to join a delegation to Brussels in order to advance her campaign, as she would “spoil the party” for him. “We asked to go to the conference to warn that humanitarian aid could not be provided to a party that violates international humanitarian law itself,” she explained. “Anyone who is silent about injustice is a partner to injustice, no matter how big a kippah he has on his head.”

In addition, she accused the Palestinian Authority of being “responsible” for holding the Israeli soldiers in Gaza, saying this “violates” international humanitarian law. “We proved this a month ago at a meeting of the UN Security Council. There was a wall-to-wall consensus that the PA was legally responsible for Hadar and Oron and was violating international humanitarian law whenever it failed to bring them home.”

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The soldier’s mother asked why any mothers would have sons to fight for a country that does not fight for them. “Everyone is silent and everyone shares the injustice of abandoning our soldiers, regardless of party, race, gender or religion,” she added.

Palestinian resistance fighters captured at least two Israeli soldiers during the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza. The offensive resulted in more than 2,260 Palestinians being killed, 11,000 wounded and tens of thousands of homes and infrastructure partially or fully destroyed.

Read: Israel prevents Hamas members, relatives from travelling for treatment