Israel Wants Bodies of Slain Soldiers Back From Gaza
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Israel asked the Red Cross on Thursday to help recover the remains of two soldiers killed in Gaza, Israeli officials said.
They said the request was made to Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon during an Egyptian-mediated truce that has temporarily halted the war in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has lost 64 soldiers in the fighting, among them Shaul Oron and Hadar Goldin, who went missing on July 20 and on August 2 respectively.
Israeli authorities later declared them dead based on forensic findings. Israel says it does not know where Oron’s body is but that the army recovered Goldin’s partial remains, allowing his family to hold a funeral.
Hamas said hours after Oron’s disappearance it had captured him alive, publishing his name and military identification number but no photographs. While acknowledging that its men ambushed Goldin’s unit, Hamas says it has no information on his whereabouts.
An ICRC spokeswoman, Cecilia Goin, declined to confirm or deny the Israeli request.
“What we do normally, in every case of armed conflict, is offer our services to faciliiate the transfer of mortal remains. But we don’t discuss publicly any specific case,” she said.
A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, declined to comment comment other than to say: “Such matters are handled in special channels, and of course not through the media, as Netanyahu knows full well.”
In the past, Israel has twice released Arab prisoners in exchange for the bodies of soldiers slain by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. Israeli authorities have shown unwillingness to bargain for Oron’s and Goldin’s remains.
“Hamas is certain that abducting a soldier is our soft underbelly,” security cabinet minister Tzipi Livni said on Saturday. “The less we expose this belly, the less they will try to abduct soldiers in the future. We need to make this clear.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
