Israel confirms remains returned are officer Goldin killed in 2014 Gaza war

Israel said the remains it received on Sunday from Hamas were those of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, an Israeli officer killed more than a decade ago in the 2014 Gaza war.

Goldin was the 24th deceased hostage whose remains have been returned by Hamas since the start of the ceasefire on October 10 that has halted the latest war in Gaza, which broke out in October 2023.

"After the identification process was completed... IDF (Israeli military) representatives informed the family of the fallen hostage Lieutenant Hadar Goldin that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been finalised," the prime minister's office said.

"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 earlier it had found Goldin's remains in a tunnel in Rafah the day before.

Goldin's body has been held in Gaza since his death in 2014. Until now, Hamas had never acknowledged his death nor possession of his remains.

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.

"Lieutenant Hadar Goldin fell in heroic combat during Operation Protective Edge" in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

"His body was abducted by Hamas, which refused to return him throughout this entire period."

Killed in ambush

Another Israeli soldier, Oron Shaul, was also killed in the six-week war in 2014.

His body was recovered earlier this year during the latest all-out war, which erupted after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Previous efforts to retrieve the remains of both soldiers through prisoner swaps 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.

Israel 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, Hamas was holding 20 living captives and the bodies of 28 deceased captives.

It has since released all the living captives and returned 23 remains of the deceased in line with the ceasefire terms.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners that had been in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds killed in Gaza.

Apart from Goldin, four hostage bodies -- three Israeli and one Thai -- remain to be returned from Gaza, all of them seized during the October 2023 attack.

'Heroic' death

Meanwhile, the family of Staff Sergeant Itay Chem laid him to rest on Sunday after his body was handed over last week.

Chen, a dual Israeli-US national, was working at the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas and its allies launched their attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military announced his death five months later in March 2024. It said he had died in combat and his body had been taken to Gaza.

"On October 7th, 2023, when terror and chaos swept across the state of Israel, Itay Chen stood his ground in defence of others," US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said in a video eulogy released by Chen's family.

"In those harrowing moments, Itay revealed the quiet heroism that defines true courage, the willingness to face unthinkable danger so that others may live."

Hamas' attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, according to Israeli figures.

The Israeli military's brutal campaign has since killed 69,176 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry.