Hamas said that it found the body of the soldier, Hadar Goldin, in a tunnel in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014.
Israel has received the body of a hostage that Hamas says is the remains of an Israeli soldier who was killed in Gaza in 2014 and who had been held in the territory since then.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Israel had received the coffin carrying the remains of a fallen hostage from the Red Cross. It was handed over to the military and operatives of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency inside the Gaza Strip. The remains would then be taken to Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine for identification, his office said.
«All the families of the fallen hostages have been informed, and our hearts go out to them at this difficult time», Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. «The effort to return our hostages continues continuously and will not stop until the last hostage is returned.»
Hamas said that it found the body of the soldier, Hadar Goldin, in a tunnel in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire ended that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.
The return of his remains would be a significant development in the U.S.-brokered truce, which many fear has been faltering amidst the slow return of bodies of hostages and skirmishes between Israeli troops and militants in Gaza. It would also close a painful, 11-year saga for his family and in Israel, where Goldin has become a national symbol.
If the body is identified as Goldin’s, there will be four bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza.
