Family of Israeli soldier held by Hamas to protest for his release on Gaza border

The family of the Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin, who is believed to be detained by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, decided yesterday to hold a weekly protest for his release on the Gaza-Israeli border.

According to Israel’s Channel 7, a mass mobilisation campaign, headed by a colonel in the Israeli army, will be launched to urge volunteers’ participation. Israeli public figures, former military officials, artists and prominent academics will participate in the protests.

The protests, which are set to be held every Friday, will take place at “the nearest possible point to the Gaza Strip,” the channel added.

Goldin’s family and other captured soldiers recently accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of neglecting the issue of the soldiers arrested by Hamas in Gaza.

On 2 April 2016, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, announced that four Israeli soldiers were held in their custody. It later announced that “they [the captured soldiers] won’t be released unless something is offered in return.”

Read: Israel arrested 450 Palestinians, including women and children in April

In October 2011, the Palestinian resistance movement was able to release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners following Egyptian-backed indirect negotiations with Israel for five years. In return, the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in late June 2006, was released.