JERUSALEM - Deputy Knesset speaker MK Hilik Bar on Wednesday gave the families of two Israeli soldiers missing in Gaza a petition initiated by the World Jewish Congress containing the names of 12,000 people around the world calling on Hamas to release the captives. Bar, in his capacity as a board member of WJC-Israel, handed them the petition during a meeting of the Lobby to Bring the Soldiers Home, led by MK Amir Peretz and MK Shuli Mualem. 
“The people of Israel and Jews around the world are embracing the soldiers’ families, and will not forget. We will do everything possible to bring them back within Israel’s borders. We will not be silent and we will not rest,” said MK Bar during the meeting.
WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer met with International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer last Thursday to pass on the petition, which the WJC launched in March.
Following that meeting and talks with the families of the soldiers, the ICRC urged Hamas to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law and release all five Israelis who went missing in Gaza and remain unaccounted for, including Goldin and Shaul, who were presumed killed in action during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
Gad Ariely, the chairman of the WJC-Israel board, said following the meeting of the Lobby to Bring the Soldiers Home, “The World Jewish Congress stands beside the Goldin and Oron families and supports their demand that Hamas return the soldiers’ bodies home to Israel.”
