Yaron Blum is new director of operations for Israeli captives and MIAs

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has appointed Yaron Blum, a former senior Shin Bet official, as director of operations for the recovery of Israelis taken captive or missing in action in enemy hands. He will focus on obtaining from Hamas the release of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in the last Gaza war and two civilians who strayed across the border, for which the Palestinian group is demanding the mass release of convicted .terrorists. The Almagor NGO, which represents bereaved families of victims of terror, objected to the Blum appointment. They maintained that the negotiations he led for obtaining Gilead Shalit’s release set free a thousand convicted terrorists, the majority of whom reverted to violence.