Netanyahu confirms that Israel is expecting to receive body of Hadar Goldin today

Israel is expecting to receive the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms, after Hamas announced it was handing over the remains of the IDF officer who fell in 2014.

Goldin, says Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, “fell in a heroic battle during Operation Protective Edge, 11 years ago. His body was abducted by Hamas, which refused to return it throughout this entire period. During all these years, we in the governments of Israel have made great efforts to bring him home. All this time, his family has endured deep anguish, and now they will be able to lay him to rest in the land of Israel.”

Israel will bring back the five remaining hostage bodies, Netanyahu promises, saying that the country has a legacy of returning soldiers’ remains that goes back to the founding of the state.

“Sometimes it takes a great deal of time, as in the case of the Sultan Yacoub battle more than forty years ago,” he says, referring to a 1982 tank battle in Lebanon after which 5 IDF soldiers were declared missing in action. The two living soldiers were brought home in deals in the 1980s.

“We have returned two of the soldiers who fell there, and there is still one more,'” says Netanyahu of the fallen soldiers from the battle. “This is a great obligation we carry, both to our soldiers and to our security forces.”

Israel is also working to bring back Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy executed by Syria in 1965, says Netanyahu.