Israel journalist calls for kidnapping Hamas leaders’ sons as bargaining chips

Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli has called for kidnapping sons of Hamas leaders to use them as bargaining chips in a prisoner swap, Sama News Agency reported on Friday.

Yehezkeli, who is the Arab Affairs Correspondent for Israeli Channel 13, spoke about this while he commented on Hadar Goldin’s family’s criticism of the Israeli government.

The family of Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas during the 2014 major Israeli offensive on Gaza, accused the successive Israeli governments of doing nothing to retrieve their son’s body.

“Claims by Goldin’s family that Israel has done nothing enough are true,” Yehezkeli said, adding: “Israel has not even attempted to kidnap sons of senior Hamas leaders.”

Yehezkeli stated: “Today, Hamas is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people more than the Palestinian Authority is. Hamas’s legitimacy developed following basic Israeli mistakes.”

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One of the mistakes, Yehezkeli claimed, is Israel’s support for Hamas between 1982 and 1987 when Israel thought it would oppose the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

He added: “In 1987, Hamas declared jihad against Israel and it became a fierce movement that does not accept our existence. This is Hamas’s success.”

It is worth noting that Goldin’s family accused the Israeli governments of doing nothing to obtain the body of their son after Hamas warned to end talks on a prisoner swap.