There was a sizable crowd outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Yerushalayim on Tuesday night, marking two years since IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit was taken captive by Hamas.

Noam Shalit, his father, told the crowd that after two years, the time for talk has come to an end. “Mr. prime minister, you had two years to talk, investigate, check all the options, and now it is time for action.”

Mr. Yona Baumel, the father of Zachariah Baumel, who was declared missing since the battle of Sultan Yakoub on 20 Sivan, 26 years ago, along with soldiers Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, turned to the Supreme Court four years ago against an IDF decision that stated the boys were dead.

Mr. Baumel stated that the state waited 20 years for the announcement so why make it without DNA proof to back it up?

Shlomi Feldman, Tzvi’s brother, this week tried to comfort and assist the Goldwasser and Eldad families, telling the media, “I hope they do not land out like us, with the government not telling us anything for 26 years. If they do not make a lot of noise, they too will be like us. An hour later, I heard the government’s intentions to declare them dead and I was in shock.”

Despite a lifetime of pain and concern over the whereabouts of the soldiers, Baumel opposes the release of terrorists for bodies, explaining the pain does not justify releasing them so they may strike again another day.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)