Bennett says he’ll oppose Hamas prisoner release for soldiers’ bodies

Education Minister Naftali Bennett says he will oppose releasing Hamas prisoners in exchange for the bodies of two IDF soldiers — Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin — being held by the Gaza terror group.

“The security of the citizens and soldiers of Israel requires us to vote in the cabinet against the release of terrorists for information, for the bodies of soldiers, since we must bring back our boys not with a deal, but with an attack,” says Bennett at the start of the Jewish Home faction meeting. “That is, by increasing the pressure on Hamas in Gaza and on its terrorists in Israeli prisons.”

“The time has come to change the equation and change the holding of the bodies of abducted soldiers from an asset to a burden,” he says. “When they hold the bodies of our soldiers, each day should be more difficult [for Hamas] than the last.”

He says concessions to the terror group will only encourage them to kidnap other soldiers and urges Likud ministers to adopt his position.

— Marissa Newman