Israel confirms remains returned are officer Goldin killed in 2014 Gaza war

JERUSALEM: Israel said the remains it received on Sunday from Hamas were those of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, an Israeli officer killed more than a decade ago in the 2014 Gaza war.

Goldin was be the 24th deceased hostage whose remains have been returned by Hamas since the start of the ceasefire on October 10 that has halted the latest war in Gaza, which broke out in October 2023.

"After the identification process was completed... IDF (Israeli Defence Force) representatives informed the family of the fallen hostage Lieutenant Hadar Goldin that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been finalised," the prime minister's office said.

"After 11 long and painful years, too long, Lt. Hadar Goldin, a hero of Israel, has today been returned to his homeland," President Isaac Herzog wrote on X.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, handed over the remains earlier on Sunday, saying it had found them in a tunnel in Rafah the day before.

Goldin's body has been held in Gaza since his death. Until now, Hamas had never acknowledged his death nor possession of his remains.

Israeli media reported on Saturday that Israel had allowed Hamas and Red Cross personnel to search in an area under Israeli control in Rafah to locate Goldin's remains.

"Lieutenant Hadar Goldin fell in heroic combat during Operation Protective Edge" in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

"His body was abducted by Hamas, which refused to return him throughout this entire period."

KILLED IN AMBUSH

Goldin, 23, was part of an Israeli unit tasked with locating and destroying Hamas tunnels when he was killed on August 1, 2014, just hours after a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire took effect.

Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said Goldin had been killed in an ambush.

"The terrorists emerged from a tunnel in Rafah and attacked IDF soldiers," Bedrosian told journalists on Sunday.

"Hadar was shot and killed during this Hamas attack, with terrorists dragging his body back into the tunnel."

Previous efforts to retrieve his remains through prisoner swaps had failed.

"The return of his (Goldin's) body, after an 11-year delay, carries great significance," said Israeli columnist Amos Harel in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

"It will close a painful chapter and send a message that Israel's commitment to leaving no soldier behind remains steadfast."

Samah Deeb, displaced from northern Gaza to central Gaza, remained apprehensive even as Hamas returned hostages.

"We still feel like hostages to the situation," Deeb, 33, told AFP.

"The next stage of the ceasefire, which involves disarmament of Hamas and administration of the Strip worries us.

"I want my children to have a dignified life, for schools and education to return, and for us to live in a proper home, not a tent or temporary shelter."

Her views were echoed by Mohammed Zamlout, another displaced Gazan.

"We want Israel's withdrawal. We want to return to our destroyed homes, begin reconstruction, rebuild infrastructure and schools, and restore life for our children," he said.

Israel listed Goldin among the deceased hostages whose remains it is seeking to repatriate under the ongoing US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the latest Gaza war.

At the start of the truce, Hamas was holding 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 deceased captives.

It has since released all the living hostages and returned 23 remains of the deceased in line with the ceasefire terms.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners that had been in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds killed in Gaza.

Apart from Goldin, four hostage bodies - three Israeli and one Thai - remain to be returned from Gaza, all of them seized during the October 2023 attack.

HOSTAGE BURIED

Meanwhile, the family of Staff Sergeant Itay Chen laid him to rest on Sunday after his body was handed over just days ago.

Chen, a dual Israeli-US national, was working at the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas and its allies attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military announced his death in March 2024, saying he had died in combat and his body had been taken to Gaza.

"In those harrowing moments, Itay revealed the quiet heroism that defines true courage, the willingness to face unthinkable danger so that others may live," US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said in a video eulogy released by Chen's family.

Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. 

The Israeli military's retaliatory campaign has since killed 69,176 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of fighters killed within this total.