Occupied Jerusalem, November 9, 2025: Israel on Sunday confirmed it had received the remains of a hostage that Hamas claims belong to Israeli officer Hadar Goldin, killed during the 2014 Gaza war.
Israeli forensic experts are expected to confirm the identity of the remains once they arrive in Israel. If verified, Goldin would become the 24th deceased hostage whose remains have been returned by Hamas since the ceasefire of October 10, which ended the latest conflict in Gaza.
“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a fallen hostage that was transferred to IDF and Shin Bet personnel inside the Gaza Strip,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it had located Goldin’s remains in a tunnel in Rafah the previous day. Goldin’s body has been held in Gaza since his death in 2014, and until now, Hamas had never acknowledged either his death or possession of his remains.
Israeli media reported that Israel had permitted Hamas and Red Cross personnel to search 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. “His body was abducted by Hamas, which refused to return him throughout this entire period.”
Goldin, 23, was part of a 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. His team was ambushed, and his body seized. Previous attempts to recover his remains through prisoner swaps had failed.
Another Israeli soldier, Oron Shaul, who was also killed in the 2014 war, had his body recovered earlier this year during the latest conflict.
Under the ongoing US-brokered ceasefire, Israel has been repatriating the remains of deceased hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and bodies from Gaza. At the start of the truce, Hamas held 20 living hostages and the remains of 28 deceased captives. Since then, all living hostages have been released, and 23 deceased remains have been returned.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and returned the bodies of hundreds killed in Gaza. Apart from Goldin, four hostage bodies—three Israeli and one Thai—still remain in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the body of Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, a dual Israeli-US national who died five months ago in combat at the Gaza border, was laid to rest on Sunday. US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff paid tribute to Chen, saying he “revealed the quiet heroism that defines true courage, the willingness to face unthinkable danger so that others may live.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry, 69,176 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed during the campaign. The Israeli military reports that 479 Israeli soldiers have died since the start of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.
