Israel receives body Hamas claims is soldier killed in 2014

Israel has received the remains of a hostage in Gaza that Hamas claims is the body of an Israeli soldier who was killed in 2014 and who has been held in Gaza for the past 11 years.

Hamas said it found the body of Hadar Goldin in a tunnel in the city of Rafah on Saturday.

He was killed on August 1, 2014 – two hours after a ceasefire took effect ending that year’s war between Israel and Hamas. His was the only body held in Gaza since before the latest, two-year war.

The Red Cross transferred the body to the Israeli military within Gaza, and it is being brought to Israel and the national forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

Dozens of people gathered along roads where the police convoy carrying the remains drove from southern Israel to Tel Aviv, holding Israeli flags and paying last respects.

If the body is identified as Mr Goldin’s, there will be four bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza. His return would be a significant development in the US-brokered truce and close a painful, 11-year saga for his family.

At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said holding the body for so long has caused “great agony of his family, which will now be able to give him a Jewish burial”.

Mr Goldin’s family spearheaded a very public campaign, along with the family of another soldier whose body was taken in 2014, to bring their sons home for burial. Israel recovered the remains of the other soldier earlier this year.

Mr Netanyahu said the country would continue trying to bring home the bodies of Israelis still being held across enemy lines, such as Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy hung in Damascus in 1965.

Israeli media has reported Hamas was delaying the release of Mr Goldin’s body in the hope of negotiating safe passage for more than 100 militants surrounded by Israeli forces and trapped in Rafah.

Gila Gamliel, the Israeli minister of innovation, science and technology, told Army radio 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 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 it acknowledged there are clashes taking place there.

Since the ceasefire began last month, militants have released the remains of 23 hostages. As part of the truce deal, the militants are expected to return all of the remains of 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 the remains of 300 have now been returned, with 89 identified.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza throughout the war has risen to 69,176. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.