The late Lt. Hadar Goldin (left) with his father, Simcha. Goldin was killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and his body remains with the Hamas terror group. Photo: Courtesy.

JNS.org — Israel’s security cabinet ruled Sunday that the bodies of Hamas operatives will no longer be returned to their families for burial, as part of new efforts to pressure the terrorist group to make swap deals

Under this policy, the Jewish state will bury terrorists in a cemetery for enemy combatants, but would be ready to exhume and turn over the bodies if Hamas returned Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in Gaza in 2014 during Operation Protective Edge, and released two living citizens, Ethiopian-Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin-Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, who were captured by Hamas in 2014 and 2015, respectively, after the mentally ill men willingly entered Gaza.

The Goldin and Shaul families both made statements urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow through on this policy change and “show leadership,” and criticized the government for “doing nothing” over the last two and a half years to secure the return of their sons.