The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) received the remains of a hostage in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas. The body, transported in a coffin provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross in southern Gaza, will be identified at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv before burial and a brief military ceremony.
According to Hamas statements reported by various media outlets, the remains belong to Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier who died on August 1, 2014, just two hours after the ceasefire that ended that year's war between Israel and Hamas came into effect. The Palestinian terrorist group stated that it found Goldin's body in a tunnel in the city of Rafah, south of the enclave. Israel maintains that his body is the only one being held in Gaza from before the recent escalation of violence that has lasted two years.
The handover of the body represents progress within the framework of the current US-brokered truce and could bring to a close a particularly painful chapter for the Goldin family, who for eleven years, along with the family of another fallen soldier, campaigned for the return of their sons. Israel recovered the body of the second soldier captured in 2014 this year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting that he expects Hamas to return Goldin's body."Holding the body for eleven years has caused great suffering to her family, who will now be able to give her a Jewish burial," Netanyahu stated.
Goldin was 23 years old when he was killed in August 2014 during an ambush in which two other soldiers also died, and his body was taken to a tunnel in Gaza. If the body is positively identified, only four hostages will remain in Gaza after militias in the Palestinian enclave handed over 24 bodies, including Goldin's.
Local media, citing anonymous official sources, reported that Hamas had delayed handing over the body in an attempt to negotiate a safe passage for more than 100 militants besieged in the city of Rafah by the IDF.
However, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of Netanyahu's cabinet, stated on Army Radio this Sunday that Israeli authorities are not negotiating any additional prisoner exchanges."There are agreements whose implementation is guaranteed by the mediators, and we shouldn't allow them to be manipulated to reopen what has already been agreed upon," Gamliel maintained.
Hamas did not comment on a possible exchange to evacuate its fighters trapped in the so-called Yellow Zone, under Israeli control, although it admitted that fighting continues in the area. If Goldin's identity is confirmed, four bodies of Israeli hostages would remain in Hamas's hands in Gaza.
