UN to discuss returning hostages’ bodies for first time since Oct. 7

“Israel is demanding something basic, moral, human—to return our boys and girls home,” said Israeli  Ambassador Danny Danon.

By Vita Fellig, JNS

The United Nations Security Council is slated to convene on Thursday to discuss the return of the bodies of hostages whom Hamas holds—the first such meeting to be scheduled since Oct. 7, the Israeli mission to the global body told JNS.

The meeting, for which Washington called, is scheduled to discuss Resolution 2474, which addresses returning bodies of missing people held by hostile parties amid armed conflict.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS that the discussion of the resolution will be the “result of a determined and uncompromising political struggle.”

“For months, we have been crying out the cry of the hostage families and the world can no longer remain silent,” the envoy said. “Hamas has turned the kidnapping of bodies into a sick industry. They do not treat the dead with respect. They treat them like inventory.”

The dignity of the dead is a sacred value in every religion, according to Danon.

“It is impossible to demand human rights on the one hand and accept the possession of bodies by a Nazi terrorist organization on the other,” he told JNS. “Israel is demanding something basic, moral, human—to return our boys and girls home.”

If the Security Council is unable to meet “this basic commitment, it loses its relevance,” Danon said.

Leah Goldin, the mother of Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose remains Hamas have been held in the Gaza Strip since 2014, is traveling from Israel to New York and is slated to hold a press conference on Thursday with Danon, per the Israeli mission to the global body.

Ruby Chen, the father of the Israeli-American hostage Itay Chen, whose body is being held in Gaza, is slated to address the Security Council.

Per the Security Council’s website, it is scheduled to hold its 9,917th meeting on “protection of civilians in armed conflict” at 3 p.m.