Israel has received the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin, a soldier killed in a Hamas ambush in 2014 and whose body has since been held in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said Lieutenant Goldin, who was 23 years old at the time of his death, has been formally identified and will now be buried. He is survived by his parents, sister, two brothers and fiancee.
Hamas's armed wing said on Sunday it would hand over Lt. Goldin's body as part of a ceasefire agreement.
As part of the first phase of the deal, Hamas returned all 20 living hostages and 24 of the 28 deceased hostages.
On Sunday, Lt. Goldin's father, Simcha Goldin, said in a statement: “Victory means bringing home the hostages and bringing our soldiers home to Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog said they had kept a photograph of Lt. Goldin in their offices for the past 11 years.
Netanyahu said “we did not give up” on his return home.
“I know the agony his family went through, I know the longing for his return that united the people of Israel, and today we are united in finally returning him to his parents, his family, to his grave in Israel.”
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), efforts to recover Lt. Goldin “involved extensive intelligence efforts along with operational activities on the ground” over the past decade and during the last two years of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The military expressed “deep condolences to the family, continues to make every effort to return all the dead hostages and is ready for the further implementation of the agreement.”
Herzog said the government would “continue to work tirelessly” to bring all hostages home.
Of the four hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip, three are Israelis and one is Thai.
[Reuters]
Lt. Goldin, from Kfar Saba, is the only dead hostage whose remains were held in the Gaza Strip before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a new war.
He was killed in action on August 1, 2014, shortly after a ceasefire began in that year's war between Israel and Hamas. He was among a group of Israeli soldiers patrolling a farming area near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip when they were attacked by a group of Hamas militants.
The Israeli military determined that Lieutenant Goldin was killed along with two other soldiers in a shootout, and then Hamas militants dragged his body into an underground tunnel.
The Israeli military used massive firepower in an attempt to prevent Hamas from taking Lieutenant Goldin hostage. Dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed in the bombing of Rafah, which continued for four days, including after Lt. Goldin was declared dead.
Nine years later, the Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took another 251 hostage.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 69,176 people since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
In the ongoing first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel has released 250 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons and 1,718 detainees from the Gaza Strip.
Before Lt. Goldin's body was returned, Israel also handed over the bodies of 300 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of 20 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, as well as the bodies of three foreign hostages – one Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian.
The two sides also agreed to increase aid to the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and a cessation of fighting, although violence flared as both sides accused the other of violating the agreement.
On Saturday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said the two people had crossed the yellow line marking the line of Israeli control and posed an “imminent threat.”
Separately, one Palestinian was killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli fire and another was wounded on Saturday, local medics and the Israeli military said.
Gaza medical officials said the man killed was killed by Israeli fire east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Civil defense rescuers said a wounded Palestinian was wounded by Israeli shelling in Khan Younis.
At least 241 people have been killed as a result of Israeli military action since the ceasefire began, according to the Gaza Strip's health ministry.
