Israel confirms returned body belongs to a soldier killed in Gaza in 2014 war
Israel has confirmed the body it received on Sunday, November 9, 2025, afternoon is that of Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier killed more than a decade ago in Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Goldin was killed in the final days of the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, and his body has been held in Gaza since then.
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“We brought Lt. Hadar Goldin – our son, a fighter – to be buried in Israel,” his father, Simcha Goldin, said in a televised statement outside their home in Kfar Saba.
“We do not abandon soldiers on the battlefield, because this is a value, and we don’t compromise on values. Victory means bringing home the hostages and bringing home our soldiers to Israel.”
Following the burial ceremony in Israel on Sunday, his mother, Leah Goldin, said, “The first is the value of friendship and comradeship, the second is the right to burial in Israel, and the third is human dignity. Sadly, we faced many disappointments. We cannot give up on who we are, and we will prevail through our values.”
Goldin’s return “provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonizing uncertainty and doubt for over 11 years,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, “I know the anguish that his family has endured. I know the pain and the solidarity that have united the entire people of Israel. And today, we are united in the knowledge that we have finally brought him back to his parents and to his family.”
As with previous hostage returns, Hamas handed what it said was Goldin’s body to the International Red Cross, which then transferred it to the Israeli military. The handover was part of the ceasefire agreement that brought the worst of the fighting in Gaza to an end a month ago.
Goldin’s family has spent years campaigning for his return, citing Israel’s commitment to the principle of leaving no one behind in conflict. The international campaign for the return of hostages taken during the Hamas-led terror attack on October 7, 2023, put a new spotlight on their fight.
Goldin was killed on August 1, 2014, just days before Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza. He was 23 years old, one of 68 Israeli soldiers killed during the month-and-a-half-long war.
More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in that war, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire, Hamas was required to return all hostages, including the bodies of those who had been killed.
