http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/200691#.VfnH_RFViko'More Electricity to Gaza? Free Hadar and Oron First'
Father of Hadar Goldin says Israel should not provide more electricity to Gaza until bodies of soldiers are returned.
By Ido Ben Porat
First Publish: 9/16/2015, 6:39 AM
Israel should only provide Gaza with additional electricity if Hamas releases the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and First Sergeant Oron Shaul which it has been holding since last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, Hadar Goldin’s father Simcha said on Tuesday.
Speaking in reference to a protest by Gazans over an electricity shortage in the coastal strip, Goldin said, “Hamas is taking advantage in a brutal and cynical way of the people of Gaza and making their situation worse.”
“Extra electricity to the Gaza Strip is possible immediately, the moment Hamas returns the bodies of Hadar and Oron," he continued.
The bereaved father added that he knows that for a while, private businessmen have offered to double the amount of electricity to Gaza, on condition that the bodies of Hadar and Oron would be returned, but Hamas has refused.
“The guilt and responsibility for every minute Gazans are in the dark is on Hamas,” he stressed.
Goldin, a first lieutenant in the Givati Brigade, was killed on August 1, 2014 at the height of the operation after Hamas terrorists breached one of several ceasefires to attack his unit on the outskirts of the city of Rafah.
Likewise, Shaul was killed the previous month during clashes between Hamas infiltrators and the IDF in the Gaza Belt and his body was also captured by terrorists.
Hamas has continued to hold the two soldiers’ bodies as bargaining chips. It was rumored that Israel and Hamas would strike a deal for their return which could see the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israel, but Hamas later toughened its conditions for such a deal.