The military wing of Hamas announced Sunday that the body of IDF officer Lt. Hadar Goldin, held by the terror organization since 2014, will be returned to Israel at 2 p.m., a move that would bring an end to his family’s long struggle to recover his remains and bring him home for burial.
Goldin was killed and his body captured by Hamas during the Protective Edge military operation in Gaza in 2014. He is the only current hostage in Gaza who predates the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, in which terrorists took 251 hostages as well as killing 1,200 people and starting the war.
“The (Izz a-Din) Al-Qassam Brigades will deliver the body of officer Hadar Goldin, which was found yesterday in a tunnel in the city of Rafah, at 2 pm Gaza time,” the terror group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Israel will conduct forensic testing on the remains before confirming their identity. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to the cabinet that Israel was expecting to receive Goldin’s body.
If confirmed, Goldin would be the 24th deceased hostage whose remains Hamas has returned since the start of the ceasefire on October 10 that halted the two-year war.
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Besides Goldin’s, the bodies of four hostages remain held in Gaza: Meny Godard, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.
Leah Goldin, left, and Simcha Goldin, the parents of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin whose body is held by Hamas in Gaza, attend a Tel Aviv rally calling for the release of hostages on July 12, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Hamas’s announcement that it will hand back Goldin’s body came against the backdrop of reports that completion of the handover of the hostages’ bodies, including that of Goldin, is linked to the presence of hundreds of Hamas fighters in Rafah in an area under Israeli control, who are unable to withdraw into territory Hamas-held territory.
The Hamas military wing also declared that “the occupation bears full responsibility for the clash with our fighters in Rafah,” and vowed that they will not surrender.
Hamas said in the statement that “in the lexicon of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades there is no place for the principle of surrender or handing themselves over to the enemy. The mediators must find a solution that will ensure the continuation of the ceasefire.”
The United States has reportedly been pressuring Israel to allow the trapped terror operatives safe passage for Goldin’s return. According to a White House plan reported by Channel 12, after Goldin’s body is returned, the terrorists would surrender and hand over their arms, Israel would pardon them, and they would then go into exile or into the Hamas-controlled area of Gaza. The tunnel in which they are hiding would be destroyed, the network added.
Netanyahu previously indicated he had no intention of making a deal regarding the trapped terror gunmen, with a statement last Monday attributed to an “Israeli official” — often a euphemism for Netanyahu’s office — saying the premier “is not allowing safe passage for 200 Hamas terrorists.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir arrives at the home of Leah and Simcha Goldin in Kfar Saba, November 8, 2025. (Screenshot/Channel 12 News)
After Hamas’s claim Saturday that it recovered Goldin’s body, Israel indicated that it expected Hamas to immediately return the body, as required by the ceasefire, with an unnamed diplomatic official telling media outlets that Israel viewed “with great severity” Hamas’s violation of the terms by its delay of the return of Goldin’s body.
“Israel demands his return immediately,” the official said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir visited the home of Leah and Simcha Goldin, Hadar’s parents, on Saturday night. The family said in a statement that they were awaiting official confirmation of the return of Hadar’s body to Israel.
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.
A legacy of returning soldiers’ remains
Speaking at the cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu said Goldin “fell in a heroic battle during Operation Protective Edge, 11 years ago.”
“His body was abducted by Hamas, which refused to return it throughout this entire period. During all these years, we in the governments of Israel have made great efforts to bring him home. All this time, his family has endured deep anguish, and now they will be able to lay him to rest in the land of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Israel will bring back the five remaining hostage bodies, Netanyahu promised, saying that the country has a legacy of returning soldiers’ remains that goes back to the founding of the state.
“Sometimes it takes a great deal of time, as in the case of the Sultan Yacoub battle more than forty years ago,” he said, referring to a 1982 tank battle in Lebanon after which 5 IDF soldiers were declared missing in action. The two living soldiers were brought home in deals in the 1980s.
“We have returned two of the soldiers who fell there, and there is still one more,’” says Netanyahu of the fallen soldiers from the battle. “This is a great obligation we carry, both to our soldiers and to our security forces.”
Israel is also working to bring back Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy executed by Syria in 1965, says Netanyahu.
The Gaza war was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and during which terrorists abducted 251 people as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
At the start of the truce on October 10 this year, Hamas was holding 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 deceased captives.
It has since released all the living hostages and returned 23 of the deceased’s remains in line with the ceasefire terms.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody — some serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks — and returned the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians.
Goldin was killed in a Hamas breach of 2014 ceasefire
Givati fighter Goldin was killed and abducted during the 2014 war in Gaza, also known as Operation Protective Edge.
At 9:05 a.m. on August 1, 2014, just over an hour after the start of a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the war brokered by the UN and the US, Hamas gunmen emerged from a tunnel in the southeastern part of Rafah and attacked troops of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, killing three soldiers, including Goldin — whose body was dragged by the terror operatives back into their tunnel.
The following day, the IDF announced that Goldin had been killed in combat before his abduction, and he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Days earlier, Hamas had killed and abducted the body of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul. Months later, the terror group would go on to capture two mentally unwell Israeli civilians who entered Gaza while in distress in two separate incidents, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
Israelis held in Gaza: Clockwise from top left: Oron Shaul, Avera Mengistu, Hadar Goldin and Hisham al-Sayed. (Flash90/ Courtesy)
For almost a decade, until the Hamas assault of October 7, 2023, the four men — two slain soldiers and two live civilians — were the sole Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and their plight and their families’ struggle to bring them back often failed to garner significant public attention or government action.
Various indirect talks were held over the years, often with Egypt serving as an intermediary, but they failed to yield any results, as Hamas was reportedly demanding the mass release of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the four men, and Israel was refusing to give in.
Goldin’s parents and his twin brother, Tzur, were at the forefront of the fight to recover the hostages, with Tzur establishing the Goldin Foundation to fight for their return.
Oron’s body was eventually recovered by the IDF in January this year, while Mengistu and Sayed were released in previous truce deals with Hamas during the war.
After October 7, the foundation became the basis of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the ad hoc organization that represented the families of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas-led invasion and massacre, and the Goldin family has been active in the forum ever since.
Agencies contributed to this report.
