Israel receives stays of hostage that Hamas says is IDF soldier killed in 2014 : NPR

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Pink Cross obtained on Sunday the stays of a hostage in Gaza that Hamas claims is the physique of an Israeli soldier who was killed in 2014 and who has been held in Gaza for the previous 11 years. His stays are the one ones at the moment held in Gaza since earlier than the newest, two-year struggle between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas stated it discovered the physique of the soldier, Hadar Goldin, in a tunnel within the enclave’s southernmost metropolis of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took impact ending that yr’s struggle between Israel and Hamas.

The stays can be transferred to Israel and to the nationwide forensic institute for identification. If the physique is recognized as Goldin’s, there can be 4 our bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza.

His return could be a big growth within the U.S.-brokered truce and shut a painful, 11-year saga for his household.

At first of the weekly Cupboard assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that holding the physique for thus lengthy has prompted “nice agony of his household, which can now have the ability to give him a Jewish burial.”

Bringing Israel’s fallen dwelling

Goldin’s household spearheaded a really public marketing campaign, together with the household of one other soldier whose physique was taken in 2014, to convey their sons dwelling for burial. Israel recovered the stays of the opposite soldier earlier this yr.

Netanyahu stated the nation would proceed attempting to convey dwelling the our bodies of Israelis nonetheless being held throughout enemy traces, similar to Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy hung in Damascus in 1965.

Israeli media, citing nameless officers, have reported that Hamas was delaying the discharge of Goldin’s physique in hopes of negotiating protected passage for greater than 100 militants surrounded by Israeli forces and trapped within the enclave’s southernmost metropolis of Rafah.

Gila Gamliel, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Expertise and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud occasion, informed Military radio that Israel isn’t negotiating for a deal inside a deal.

“There are agreements whose implementation is assured by the mediators, and we should not permit anybody to come back know and play (video games) and to reopen the settlement,” she stated.

Hamas made no touch upon a potential change for its fighters caught within the so-called yellow zone, which is managed by Israeli forces, although they acknowledged that there are clashes happening there.

Hamas made no touch upon a potential change for its fighters caught within the so-called yellow zone, which is managed by Israeli forces, although they acknowledged that there are clashes happening there.

Israeli troopers carry the flag-draped coffin of slain hostage Israeli-American Employees Sgt. Itay Chen throughout his funeral at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, after his physique was returned from Gaza.

Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

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Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

Optimistic growth within the truce

For the reason that ceasefire started final month, militants have launched the stays of 23 hostages. As a part of the truce deal, the militants are anticipated to return the entire stays of hostages.

For every Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the stays of 15 Palestinians. Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic drugs at Nasser Hospital within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis, stated that the stays of 300 have now been returned, with 89 recognized.

The struggle started with a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, by which 251 individuals had been kidnapped and 1,200 killed in Israel, largely civilians.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Well being Ministry stated the variety of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 69,176. The ministry, a part of the Hamas-run authorities and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed data considered as usually dependable by unbiased consultants.

Displaced Palestinians stroll by means of a makeshift tent camp within the Muwasi space of Khan Younis, within the Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 8,2025.

Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

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Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

A mom’s ache

Again in 2014, the Israeli navy decided, based mostly on proof discovered within the tunnel the place Goldin’s physique was taken — together with a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes — that he had been killed within the assault. His household held what Leah Goldin now calls a “pseudo-funeral’ together with Goldin’s shirt and fringes, on the urging of Israel’s navy rabbis. However the lingering uncertainty was like a “knife always making new cuts.”

Leah Goldin informed the Related Press earlier this yr that returning her son’s physique is an moral and spiritual worth, a part of the sacrosanct pact Israel makes with its residents, who’re required by legislation to serve within the navy.

“Hadar is a soldier who went to fight they usually deserted him, they usually destroyed his humanitarian rights and ours as nicely,” Goldin stated. She stated her household usually felt alone of their wrestle to convey Hadar, a gifted artist who had simply gotten engaged, dwelling for burial.

Within the dizzying days after Hamas’ assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Goldin household threw themselves into trying to assist a whole bunch of households of the 251 individuals Hamas had dragged into Gaza. Initially, the Goldins discovered themselves shunned as advocacy for the Oct. 7 hostages surged. “We had been a logo of failure,” Goldin recalled. “They informed us, ‘we aren’t such as you, our youngsters will come again quickly.'”