In a moment that marked both closure and continued grief, Israel on Tuesday laid to rest army officer Hadar Goldin in the central town of Kfar Saba, more than eleven years after his death in Gaza. The return of Goldin’s remains by Hamas, delivered as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, drew tens of thousands of mourners to the military cemetery—a testament to the soldier’s significance in the Israeli national consciousness and the long ordeal endured by his family and supporters.
Goldin, a 23-year-old lieutenant in the Givati Brigade, was killed on August 1, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, an Israeli military offensive in Gaza. According to the Associated Press, he died just two hours after a ceasefire took effect, ambushed by Hamas fighters while leading a mission to destroy tunnels near Rafah in southern Gaza. His body was seized and taken into a tunnel, setting off a years-long campaign—both public and private—to bring him home.
The funeral, held on November 11, 2025, was a scene of deep emotion and collective solidarity. Crowds spilled beyond the cemetery, blocking streets and climbing rooftops for a final glimpse of the flag-draped coffin. Israeli flags fluttered in the breeze, and a homemade banner reading “We will remember forever” was held high among the mourners. Some in attendance, like 76-year-old Israel Blumshtein, had kept Goldin’s photo in their cars for years, a personal token of the national promise: “We do not leave anyone anywhere,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Goldin’s family had held a symbolic funeral in 2014 after parts of his body were recovered soon after his death, but repeated attempts to retrieve the rest of his remains through prisoner exchanges failed. The return of his body on November 9, 2025, as part of the first phase of a ceasefire deal, finally allowed for a traditional burial. The agreement, brokered by then-US President Donald Trump, also included the return of all 20 living hostages and the remains of 24 others held by Hamas, as well as the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, according to the BBC and AFP.
“Victory means bringing home the hostages and bringing home our soldiers to Israel,” said Simcha Goldin, Hadar’s father, in a statement on Sunday. At the funeral, he urged the crowd to “behave righteously and do not hate one another. That is Hadar’s legacy.” He added, “I ask you to act the same way, and to let there be a little more of Hadar in our daily lives.”
For Goldin’s mother, Leah, the burial marked the end of a long and anguished journey. “Hadar, we waited for you 11 years, that’s a long time. A very long time. I honestly can’t explain how we did it,” she said at the graveside, as reported by the Associated Press. She described the struggle to bring her son home as part of the social contract between Israel and its citizens, who are required by law to serve in the military. “Hadar is a soldier who went into combat and they abandoned him, and they destroyed his humanitarian rights and ours as well,” she told the AP earlier this year.
The Goldin family’s campaign for his return became a national cause. Posters with his face appeared at intersections across Israel, and his story was regularly invoked by politicians and the public alike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog both kept a photo of Goldin in their offices for the past eleven years, with Netanyahu stating, “We didn’t give up” on bringing him home. “I know the agony that his family’s been through, I know the longing for his return that united the people of Israel and today we’re united in bringing him finally to his parents, to his family, to a grave in Israel,” Netanyahu said, according to the BBC.
Despite the widespread support, the Goldin family often felt alone in their struggle. Leah Goldin expressed frustration with the lack of government support, though the family continuously thanked the Israeli military and reserve soldiers who searched for Hadar’s body over the years. Netanyahu did not attend the funeral, though Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, delivered a eulogy: “Today, you have returned to the land for which you fought. But we will keep returning to every place where a promise remains unfulfilled. We will fight on until every one of our sons has come home.”
Goldin’s twin brother, Tzur, spoke movingly at the funeral about the broader implications of hostage-taking. “It aims to set one family’s interests against those of the whole, to force us to decide who matters more or less, to privilege one value over another, to destroy us from within,” he said, as quoted by AFP. “Our victory, for everyone, will be to ensure the founding principle of Israeli society—not abandoning one another, leaving no one behind—remains intact.”
The return of Goldin’s remains comes amid a fragile ceasefire that has brought a temporary halt to the latest war between Israel and Hamas, which erupted after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led gunmen. That assault killed around 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 others. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 69,182 Palestinians have been killed since the latest war began, with the United Nations generally considering the ministry’s figures reliable.
Despite the ceasefire, violence has continued sporadically. The Gaza health ministry reports at least 241 people killed by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. Both sides have accused each other of breaching the deal, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, with many displaced Palestinians relying on charity kitchens for basic sustenance.
The head of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, Chen Kugel, told AFP that Goldin’s return provided “a sense of closure, for the family… but also for the entire country. Now he’s in Israel, in his home. Even if that home is a grave.”
The broader hostage issue remains unresolved. Four bodies of hostages seized during the October 7, 2023, attack are still believed to be in Gaza—three Israeli and one Thai. Israeli officials, including President Herzog, have pledged to “continue to act tirelessly” to bring home all the hostages. The Israeli military emphasized its commitment, stating it “continues to make every effort to return all the deceased hostages and is prepared for the continued implementation of the agreement.”
For many in Israel, the return of Hadar Goldin’s body closes a painful chapter that began during a war that left over 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead in 2014. Yet, as Urit Uziel, a neighbor of the Goldin family, told AFP, “We will still fight for the return of everybody, all four of them, home.”
The funeral ended with the mournful singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, echoing a nation’s hope for the return of all its missing and a future where such tragedies need not be repeated.
