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Israel said on Sunday that Hamas had handed over the remains of Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier killed in 2014 whose body had been held for more than 4,000 days as part of a bargain.
Goldin was serving as a lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Givati Brigade when he was assassinated on August 1, 2014, two hours after the 72-hour ceasefire took effect, ending that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.
“We are going to get the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin this afternoon,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at a government meeting on Sunday. “From the founding of the state to the freedom struggle to the liberation war, we have the legacy of returning our soldiers who died in war and we are doing so.”
Hamas announced that it found Goldin’s body in a tunnel in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday and would return the body on Sunday afternoon local time.
Hamas hands over remains of hostages whose bodies were recovered nearly 2 years ago
Hadar Goldin, an Israeli army officer killed in southern Gaza in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, is shown in this undated handout photo. (Courtesy Bring Them Home Now/Handout via Reuters)
Netanyahu’s office announced on Sunday that Israel had received a coffin from the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip. His office said the remains still need to undergo the official identification process by the Health Ministry’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, after which, the family will receive notification.
Goldin’s body was kept in Gaza for 4,118 days. As part of the US-brokered peace deal, the Hamas terrorist group is expected to return the remains of all its hostages, most of whom were taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Freed Israeli hostage Matan Angrest holds a photo of Hadar Goldin, the Israeli soldier killed in 2014, whose body has since remained in Gaza, during a rally calling for the return of dead hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Ilian)
Goldin’s parents spent 11 years leading a campaign to bring their son home for burial.
Israel receives 2 more hostage coffins from Gaza through Red Cross operation as identification begins
Goldin’s family repeated over the years, “Those who abandon the dead will also abandon the wounded and the living.”
Israel initially believed that Goldin had been kidnapped and held captive, although it was later determined that the soldier had been killed after evidence was found – including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer clothes – in the tunnel where Goldin had been taken.
Hamas has released the remains of 23 hostages since the ceasefire began last month. For every Israeli hostage returned, Israel is releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which abducted 251 people and killed 1,200 in Israel, mostly civilians.
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Earlier this year, the Israeli army recovered the body of another soldier killed in the 2014 war.
Fox News’s Yonat Friling and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
