Hamas announced the handover of the body of an Israeli officer killed in 2014 in Gaza
The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement announced that on Sunday it would hand over the body of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin, killed in 2014 in Gaza, whose remains have for years been at the center of intense negotiations. “The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the body of officer Hadar Goldin, found yesterday in a tunnel in the city of Rafah, at 14.00. (local time, 1pm in Paris) »the armed group wrote in a statement published on Telegram.
Israel has not confirmed the identity of the body of the slain officer, aged 23, on 1uh August 2014, while on a mission with his reconnaissance unit in a tunnel near Rafah during the previous war in the Gaza Strip.
Last January, the body of soldier Oron Shaoul, 21 years old at the time of his death on July 20, 2014, due to the explosion of the vehicle he was traveling in during a military operation in Gaza City, was brought back by the Israeli army to Israel, where he was buried.
For years, the remains of soldiers Goldin and Shaoul were the subject of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, particularly with the aim of releasing Palestinian prisoners.
Hadar Goldin is one of five dead hostages still being held in Gaza whose bodies have not been returned by Hamas to Israel under a ceasefire agreement that took effect on October 10. The remainder are three Israeli citizens and a Thai citizen, all of whom died in the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
