Jerusalem, 8 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff visited the family of Lt. Hadar Goldin on Saturday night, fueling speculation that his body will be returned after being held for 12 years in Gaza.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s meeting with Simcha and Leah Goldin followed claims by a senior Hamas source to Al Jazeera that Goldin’s body was found in an area of Rafah in southern Gaza controlled by the Israel Defense Forces. Hamas has not indicated whether it plans to return the remains.
Rafah lies behind the Yellow Line established by the current cease-fire framework. Some 200 Hamas gunmen are stranded in tunnels on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line. Israeli officials have reportedly indicated a willingness to let the Hamas men leave in exchange for the return of Goldin’s body.
Goldin of the IDF’s was killed and his body seized by Hamas in Rafah in 2014 during a US and UN-brokered ceasefire on Aug. 1, 2014. A Hamas squad emerged from a tunnel and ambushed Goldin’s unit, killing him and two other soldiers.
Goldin was the last Israeli whose remains have been held in Gaza since before the October 7, 2023, attacks. He became closely associated with Sgt. Oron Shaul, an Israeli soldier who was killed in Shejaya and whose body was also seized by Hamas in July 2014. Israeli forces recovered Shaul’s body in January 2025 hours before a ceasefire went into effect.
Although the body was held in Gaza, Goldin’s family held a funeral in their home town of Kfar Saba two days after the ambush.
Goldin, who would have been 34 years old today, became engaged to Edna Sarusi shortly before the ambush. Goldin is also survived by his parents, Simcha and Leah, and a twin brother, Tzur.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel confirmed that a body returned by Hamas on Friday night was 61-year-old Lior Rudaeff of Kibbut Nir Yitzhak.
Around 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken captive by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The bodies of four Israelis and one foreign national are still held in Gaza.
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