Photo Credit: IDF
IDF Major General Yoav Mordechai, COGAT

Israel’s IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai confirmed Sunday the bodies of the terrorists killed Friday in clashes on the Gaza border will not be returned until Hamas releases all dead and living Israeli hostages being held in the enclave.

In a post on the Arabic-language COGAT Facebook page, Mordechai wrote that burial of the deceased is an important value in both Judaism and in Islam.

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“Israel will not rest, and the residents of Gaza will know no peace until the Israelis are returned from Gaza and our fallen soldiers are brought to rest in Israel,” he wrote in the post.

“The bodies of Mosa’ab Saloul, a Hamas terrorist from Za’wayda, and Muhammad Rahmi – terrorists armed with firearms and a bomb who tried to carry out a terror attack in Israel two days ago (30 March) – have joined the 24 other bodies that Israel has been holding since Operation Protective Edge, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad tunnel explosion in our territory in October 2017.

“Hamas is taking away your right to mourn your children,” he wrote. “The Hamas terrorist group in Gaza cares neither about the living or the dead.”

During Friday’s “march of return” at the Gaza border, 10 of the 16 Gazans who were killed during the event were convicted terrorists, including five which the Hamas terrorist group acknowledged as members of its Izz a-Din al-Qassam military wing.

The IDF has said that eight of the dead terrorists were members of Hamas, according to Ynet. One is a member of global jihad, and another is a member of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.