Steinmeier, second on the left
Steinmeier says will tell German intelligence to contact Hamas about Israeli POWs
German president approached by heads of Over the Rainbow Zionist movement at ceremony in Bremen, asked to help bring home Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed and return remains of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said this week that he would instruct the country's intelligence agencies to contact Hamas leaders in Gaza in an effort to promote the return of two Israeli citizens and the remains of two IDF soldiers being held in the strip.
Steinmeier met on Wednesday with the head of Over the Rainbow Zionist movement, Tzvi Avisar, and the movement's head in Germany, Rabbi Natanel Teitelbaum, at the inauguration of a new memorial site at the Bunker Valentin in Bremen, in memory of 1,400 victims, some of them Jews, who were forced to work there to build submarines for the Nazi regime.
Steinmeier, second on the left, speaking ato Avisar and Teitelbaum
The German president, who gave his sponsorship to the event, was asked by Avisar and Teitelbaum—on behalf of the families of fallen IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul—to help by putting pressure on Hamas to return Goldin and Shaul's remains as well as Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered the Gaza Strip of their own volition and were captured by Hamas.
Avisar gave Steinmeier a letter from Dr. Simcha Goldin, Hadar's father, and told him the Goldin and Shaul families wanted to meet with him in Berlin.
President Steinmeier was familiar with the issue and mentioned Germany could contribute on the intelligence level. He promised he would consult with German intelligence heads, who helped mediate prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah in the past.
He also asked to receive relevant materials on the issue.
