Key points of Goldin family’s plea for their son

Soon after the end of Shabbat, the family of missing Israeli soldier 2nd-Lt. Hadar Goldin held an emotional press conference outside their home in Kfar Saba, and pleaded with the government not to abandon him.

Hadar’s father Dr. Simha Goldin said he “can’t imagine that the IDF will abandon its combat soldier.”

“I am a reserve battalion commander. I did reserve duty until age 50… my personal commander was [IDF chief of staff] Benny Gantz and I know it’s impossible that he would give an order to leave [the Gaza Strip] while there’s a soldier inside…I know Givati Brigade Commander Ofer Winter. I can’t believe he would forsake an officer anywhere.”

“The soldiers we sent…my sons…went out to protect the people of the Gaza periphery,” Simha said. “I can’t believe the people of the Gaza periphery will lend a hand to the abandonment of a soldier in the field, who went out there to protect them.”

Goldin’s older sister, Ayelet, said that “If a captive soldier is left in Gaza, it’s a defeat,” and called for Goldin’s return.

“It’s important to say this… Hadar was sent by the country and was abducted by a terror organization and he’s alive. He’s alive now and I will not allow for any other terminology to enter the lexicon,” Ayelet said.

Hadar’s fiancée Edna addressed him directly, saying: “I love you and I miss you. I’m waiting for you, waiting to dance at our wedding.”

“Hadar’s alive,” his twin brother, Tsur, said. “He went in alive, he’ll leave alive.”

As far as is known, Goldin was injured in a blast by a suicide bomber who emerged from a tunnel opening, close to a major “attack tunnel” that the Givati force was demolishing, in Rafah on Friday morning, breaching a UN- and US-brokered truce. Two other soldiers — Major Benaya Sarel, 26, from Kiryat Arba, and 1st.-Sgt. Liel Gidoni, 20, from Jerusalem — were killed in the blast.

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