Forensic scientists at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir identified the deceased hostage returned from Gaza as Lt. Hadar Goldin on Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed.
Goldin was a Givati Brigade platoon commander who was killed in Gaza in 2014.
Among the soldiers in the honor guard receiving Goldin’s coffin were reservists who served alongside him in 2014, the military confirmed.
Earlier, Israel had received his remains from the Red Cross. There are now four deceased hostages remaining in Gaza.
Goldin’s family, as well as political and military officials, eulogized him upon hearing the confirmed identification.
“Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades will hand over... Lt. Hadar Goldin’s remains, which were found yesterday afternoon in the path of one of the tunnels in the Yebna camp in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, at 2 p.m. Gaza time,” Hamas said in a statement published to social media.
IDF Southern Command told Walla that excavations by Hamas in the southern Gaza city saw the apparent remains of seven people removed from the site and that Goldin may have been one of them, adding that the report cannot be verified and that “the source of all the publications is Hamas alone.”
“An entire country is waiting for Hadar to be returned to us,” the family said in a statement. “The chief of staff arrived at the end of Shabbat to update us on the tremendous efforts to free the hostages, and we salute everyone involved in this national mission.
“We are waiting for news of official confirmation that Hadar has returned to Israel. We ask that you remain calm. Until it’s confirmed, it’s not over.”
In June of 2014, Hamas kidnapped and murdered Eyal Yifrah, Gil-ad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, three hitchhiking Israeli teenagers, sparking a war between Israel and Hamas.
On August 1, 2014, the US and UN announced that a ceasefire had been reached between Israel and Hamas, which would have allowed the IDF to continue dismantling certain Hamas tunnels.
That morning, Hadar was operating with his unit in Rafah. While working to dismantle a tunnel, Hamas terrorists, in breach of the US and UN-brokered ceasefire announced only hours earlier, emerged from the tunnel, shooting two soldiers and taking Hadar captive.
At first, all signs pointed to Hadar being alive, but within days, the IDF announced that he had been killed before he was taken.
The Military Rabbinate decided that the matter was clear enough to hold a funeral, and despite his remains being held in Gaza, partial remains were buried in a funeral attended by thousands of Israelis. There, he was eulogized by many, including his commander, parents, and fiancée, Edna Sarusi, whom he had been set to marry only months after his murder. Senior Israeli officials estimate that US pressure will push Israel to show flexibility regarding the issue of the terrorists in the Rafah tunnels, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post.
“Outwardly, everyone declares that Israel will not allow those 100-200 terrorists to leave the tunnels, even if they lay down their arms,” the official said. “But behind closed doors, everyone admits, if there is significant American pressure on this issue, Israel will have no choice but to compromise.”
US likely to pressure Israel to ease stance on terrorists in Rafah tunnels, official tells 'Post'
US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, are expected to arrive in Israel on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.
On the agenda is the question of the Rafah terrorists, a topic that worries both the US administration and the mediating countries, who fear that Israeli attempts to capture or kill the terrorists could cause the ceasefire to collapse.
“The American idea is to conduct an experiment: Allow them to disarm, leave the area, and begin rebuilding the Rafah region, all as a pilot program for President Trump’s plan to demilitarize Hamas,” another Israeli official told the Post.
The president’s envoys will also discuss the continued implementation of Trump’s plan and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, following Kazakhstan’s recent decision to join the four countries already participating in the agreements.
Amichai Stein and Leo Feierberg Better contributed to this report.