UN Security Council holds special session on Israelis, remains held in Gaza by Hamas
The United Nations Security Council on Friday held a special session on Israeli civilians and the remains of slain soldiers held by the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza.
The late Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin (left) with his father, Simcha. Hadar was killed in an ambush during an internationally negotiated cease-fire on Aug. 1, 2014. Credit: Courtesy Goldin family.
The session, which was co-hosted by the U.S. and Ukraine and was attended by more than 35 U.N. member states, addressed the plight of Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are currently being held captive by Hamas, as well as the remains of Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
“Our son was not the victim of a war, he was the victim of a cease-fire. A U.N.-sponsored cease-fire. There has been only painful and brutal silence from the U.N.,” Hadar’s mother Dr. Leah Goldin told the Security Council, referring to how her son was killed in an ambush during an internationally negotiated cease-fire on Aug. 1, 2014.
“Three years after he was taken, our son’s grave remains empty,” she said. “Not one member of the U.N. has taken real action to return our sons. Only words….I want my son back.”
Speaking at the session, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon urged the Security Council’s members to “look at Leah Goldin in the eyes. Explain to this mother why she has had to wait for three long years and still has no answers. Why her family is still forced to wait to give Hadar the respect and dignity of a proper burial that he so deserves.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.N. Volodymyr Yelchenko said, “We will do all it takes, again and again until justice prevails and Hadar, and the others taken, are returned home to their families.”
JNS.org
