TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hamas announced it will hand over on Sunday afternoon the body of an Israeli soldier who was killed in 2014 and who has been held in Gaza since then. His remains are the only ones held in Gaza since before the latest, two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
The return of the soldier, Hadar Goldin, would be a significant development in the U.S.-brokered truce and close a painful, 11-year saga for his parents, who spearheaded a campaign, along with the family of another soldier whose body was taken in 2014, to bring their son home for burial.
According to the announcement, Hamas said it found the Goldin’s body in a tunnel in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took effect ending the that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli media, citing anonymous officials, have reported that Hamas was delaying the release of Goldin’s body in hopes of negotiating safe passage for more than 100 militants surrounded by Israeli forces and trapped in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah.
Gila Gamliel, the minister of science and technology and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, told Army radio said that Israel is not negotiating for a deal within a deal.
“There are agreements whose implementation is guaranteed by the mediators, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to come know and play (games) and to reopen the agreement,” she said.
Hamas made no comment on a possible exchange for its fighters stuck in the so-called yellow zone, which is controlled by Israeli forces, though they acknowledged that there are clashes taking place there.
Goldin is one of five bodies of deceased hostages still remaining in Gaza. As part of the U.S.-brokered ctruce deal, the militants are expected to return all of the remains of hostages.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog confirmed that Israel expected the release of Goldin in the afternoon. Herzog made the comments during a eulogy at the funeral of Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, an American-Israeli soldier who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 and his body was in Gaza until militants released it last week.
Since the ceasefire began last month, militants have released the remains of 23 hostages. For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians.
Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, said that the remains of 300 have now been returned, with 89 identified.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 251 people were kidnapped and 1,200 killed in Israel, mostly civilians.
On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 69,169. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
Back in 2014, the Israeli military determined, based on evidence found in the tunnel where Goldin’s body was taken — including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes — that he had been killed in the attack.
Earlier this year, Goldin’s family marked 4,000 days since his body was taken. The military retrieved the body of another soldier who was killed in the 2014 war earlier this year.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
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