Reports also raise questions about the efforts made to recover the body.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
New details of the search for Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body emerged Sunday after Hamas returned his remains to Israel 11 years after abducting the soldier in Operation Protective Edge.
According to Amit Segal of Channel 12, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said recently that the IDF had “carried out heroic operations to recover him,” with “hundreds of soldiers underground sifting dirt while risking our forces.”
He compared the digging in and around tunnels to “archaeological excavations.”
Segal said that Division 162, commanded by Maj. Gen. Itzik Cohen, one of Goldin’s former commanders, searched for Goldin along with special forces, based on intelligence information and other sources “for many months … with determination, a sense of mission and commitment to return him.”
Military correspondent Yinon Yatach reported on i24News that the special forces, which included the elite Shayetet 13 unit, began their underground hunt much earlier, immediately upon the capture of Rafah in May 2024.
In a brief but bombshell report Sunday, Channel 14 cited soldiers personally involved in the search in the Rafah area as saying they had been held back from finding the body.
“For half a year, a combat engineering team was digging to find Goldin’s body, finding tunnels,” said reporter Ariel Idan. “They managed to actually get to the point where Hadar Goldin was found, just a few meters away, and then they received an order – it should be said, a strange one – to retreat a kilometer away from the position.”
“Several hours later, over the course of last Sabbath, about 20 Hamas terrorists arrived together with Red Cross representatives, broke through the last location, drew out Hadar Goldin’s body, and transferred him … until they brought him to Israeli territory.”
To Idan, the conclusion was clear: “One moment before IDF fighters could rescue the body by themselves, they were ordered to go back to enable the Red Cross and Hamas to perform the deed.”
A report in Channel 12’s online edition seemed to corroborate this view.
“In recent days, Israel received golden information…. Security forces personnel managed to reach someone who knew the exact location of Hadar’s burial,” N12 reported.
“Hamas realized that Israel had discovered Hadar’s location, and that they could no longer postpone his return.”
According to this report, Turkey had pressured Hamas not to agree to hand over Hadar until Jerusalem guaranteed the safe passage of 150 to 200 terrorists currently trapped in Rafah tunnels on the Israeli-held side of Gaza.
In a seeming effort to help such a deal along, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Sunday that those trapped were “civilians” – even though Hamas itself has called them “our warriors.”
N12 added that American pressure “prevailed” over the Turkish pressure, and Israel apparently did not have to commit to letting the terrorists out.
Walla, by contrast, cited an American source who said that the US promised Hamas via intermediaries that, in exchange for Goldin, the trapped men would be granted safe passage, possibly back to the Hamas side of the Strip or to Egypt.
An Israeli source responded by calling the report “nonsense,” the news site said.
Goldin will be buried Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the military cemetery in his hometown of Kfar Saba.
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