Israel's military chief pledged Saturday to bring home the remains of an officer killed more than a decade ago in Gaza, the army said, after Israeli media reported that Hamas had found his body in a tunnel.
Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir met with the family of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed during the 2014 six-week war on Gaza.
Since his death, Goldin's body has been held in Gaza but Hamas has never publicly confirmed his death or acknowledged possession of his remains.
"Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir met this evening with the Goldin family and updated them on the information known to the IDF so far," the military said in a statement, without specifying what the information was.
"The chief of the general staff emphasised his commitment and the IDF's commitment to bringing back Hadar and all the fallen hostages."
Several Israeli networks, including Channel 12, cited Hamas sources in reporting that the group had recovered Goldin's remains in a tunnel in a part of the southern city of Rafah under Israeli army control.
Hamas has issued no official comment.
Another Israeli soldier, Oron Shaul, was also killed in the 2014 war. His body was recovered earlier this year during the latest war on the enclave.
Efforts to secure the return of both soldiers' remains in past prisoner swaps had repeatedly failed.
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.
The army said his team came under fire from fighters, who killed him and seized his body.
Israel has listed Goldin among the deceased captives whose remains it seeks to repatriate under the ongoing US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the latest Gaza war.
At the start of the truce on October 10, Hamas was holding 20 living captives and 28 bodies of deceased captives.
It has since released all the living captives and returned 23 sets of remains in line with the ceasefire terms.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians.
Apart from Goldin, four captive bodies -- three Israeli and one Thai -- remain to be returned from Gaza, all of them seized during the October 2023 attack.