Danon to push UN to pressure Hamas to return captives in UNSC meeting today

"We're used to decisions being used against us. This time we want exactly the opposite."

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, February 20, 2018 (photo credit: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, February 20, 2018
(photo credit: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)
Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said that he is pushing for the UN Security Council to make a decision placing pressure on Hamas to return Israelis who are captured or missing in the Gaza Strip, in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet radio station on Monday.
"We've turned to [UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay] Mladenov and the UN Secretary General to act, not just to speak, and this time not just because of Israel, but because of a decision by the UN Security Council," said Danon. "We're used to decisions being used against us. This time we want exactly the opposite."
"It's the obligation of the Secretary General to bring up the issue in every place and in every meeting and report on this and this is what will happen in a few hours at the Security Council," said Danon. 
Danon assured the families of the captured and missing that the state has not forgotten them and added that the Secretary General has talked with him and said that he's ready to continue and help in returning the captured and missing from Gaza.
"Every time they come to us with humanitarian requests and demands about the Gaza Strip, we bring up our humanitarian issue of the the captured and missing and their families and we are definitely succeeding in forming a discussion on this subject," added the ambassador to the UN. "[There is] a positive discussion in the UN, something which in the past didn't exist." 
He also emphasized the importance of meeting between the families of the captured and missing and officials in the UN.
Danon stressed Iran's involvement with and support of Hamas, mentioning an ongoing meeting between Hamas leaders and Iranian officials in Tehran this week, and added that even with all that is happening in the Persian Gulf, Israel has still managed to bring up the issue of the captured and missing in Gaza.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN added that he plans on exposing new information from Israeli defense authorities during the Security Council meeting that proves that Iran is active within Lebanon and is using facilities in the east to help them transfer equipment into the country. 
"This information will definitely help us in the continuing struggle against Iranian aggression and maybe it will also raise the pressure on the Lebanese government, a government that receives monetary aid from the US and Europe, [showing] that it needs to act in a more substantial way against Hezbollah," said Danon in the Kan interview.