On July 20, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, IDF Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, age 20, left his armored personnel carrier to repair the vehicle when Hamas fired on his unit and took him prisoner.

On August 1, 2014, Hamas kidnapped IDF Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, age 23, following a deadly ambush by Hamas in southern Gaza. The attack came an hour and a half into an agreed upon humanitarian ceasefire which had been brokered by then US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.

The IDF concluded, based on forensic evidence, that both soldiers were killed in action. Yet, nearly three years later, their bodies have not been returned to Israel for burial. Given that their sons have been declared both missing in action and dead, the Shaul and Goldin families are in a state of perpetual limbo, unable to give their sons proper burial in Israel.  

Hamas has borne no consequences from the international community for violating that cease-fire brokered two and a half years ago.

Holding the bodies of those killed in action and preventing the return of their remains for burial is a violation of the Geneva Conventions which states, “As far as military considerations allow, each Party to the conflict shall facilitate the steps taken…to protect [the killed] against…ill-treatment”. Burying one’s dead is a humanitarian right and a religious right, and the rights of the Shaul and Goldin families remain violated.

Make your voices heard by adding your name to the list of those asking the International Committee of the Red Cross to press the Hamas terror organization to return the bodies of these two young Israelis to their families. 

Together, we have the power to bring Hadar and Oron home to their final resting place.