(AFP) – Hundreds of Israelis gathered Tuesday in the central town of Kfar Saba to lay to rest army officer Hadar Goldin, whose remains were returned by Hamas after being held in Gaza for more than a decade.
Crowds packed the military cemetery, with some climbing onto rooftops to glimpse the funeral, while others watched from plastic chairs in front of a large outdoor screen.
Blue-and-white Israeli flags fluttered in the wind, as mourners held the young lieutenant’s portrait alongside a homemade banner reading: “We will remember forever.”
Israel received Goldin’s remains on Sunday as part of an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
His father, Simcha Goldin, hailed his son as a “Jewish warrior”, while urging tearful mourners to “behave righteously and do not hate one another. That is Hadar’s legacy.”
“I ask you to act the same way, and to let there be a little more of Hadar in our daily lives,” he said.
Family members walk behind the coffin during the funeral of Israeli soldier Lt Hadar Goldin on November 11, 2025 in Kfar Saba, Israel. Hamas handed over the body of Goldin on Sunday. His remains have been held by the Palestinian terrorist group for more than a decade after he was killed in Gaza during the 2014 war with Israel. He was 23 at the time. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Hadar Goldin, 23, was killed on August 1, 2014 during a previous Israeli offensive in Gaza known as “Operation Protective Edge”.
He was leading a mission to destroy Hamas tunnels when he was ambushed, killed and his body seized just hours into a short-lived humanitarian truce.
His return closes an agonising 11-year ordeal that haunted both his family and the nation.
“Today is a hard day, but I am happy because Hadar’s coming was a dream,” Israel Blumshtein, a 76-year-old resident of Kfar Saba, told AFP, adding that he had kept a picture of Goldin in his car for six years.
He said it was important that his body be returned “because in our army… we do not leave anyone anywhere”.
‘Some kind of relief’
Goldin’s twin brother, Tzur Goldin, said Hamas’s hostage-taking sought “to weaken Israeli society, which is built on family”.
“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 continued.
“Our victory, for everyone, will be to ensure the founding principle of Israeli society — not abandoning one another, leaving no one behind — remains intact.”
Goldin’s family held a symbolic funeral in 2014 after parts of his body were recovered from a tunnel soon after his death, but repeated attempts to retrieve the rest of his remains through previous prisoner exchanges failed.
“It’s some kind of relief because he’s been there for more than 11 years,” said Aharon Gamzu, a 48-year-old software engineer who was draped in an Israeli flag.
Leah and Simcha Goldin, the parents Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed during the six-week 2014 war in Gaza, attend his funeral in a military cemetery in Kfar Saba on November 11, 2025. (ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“We all go to the army when we are 18 and we trust the army, the country, if something will happen to us they will do everything to bring us back,” he added, describing the long wait as a “sad period for all of us”.
By his side, Einat Carmel Gamzu also held an Israeli flag, saying it was important to be at the funeral “to give him a last honour, our honour for him and the family”.
“It was very important for us to be here today with the Israeli flag and to stand by the family and by the Israeli people,” she added.
Since the truce in the latest Gaza war came into effect on October 10, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages it held and the remains of 24 others, including Goldin.
Four bodies of hostages seized during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack — which sparked the retaliatory war in Gaza — are still in the Palestinian territory.
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