Netanyahu welcomes Goldin’s return: ‘We have finally brought him back’

By Sam Sokol 9 November 2025, 8:24 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes and takes credit for the return of the body of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin to Israel more than 11 years after he was killed and abducted by the Hamas terror group.

“For 11 years — since Operation Protective Edge — I’ve always had two pictures in my office: of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, of blessed memory,” says Netanyahu in a video posted to social media.

Shaul was also killed in 2014 and his body was held by Hamas in Gaza until Israeli troops recovered him in a clandestine operation earlier this year.

The Goldin family accused Netanyahu over the years of failing to mount sufficient pressure on Hamas to return Hadar’s body, and accused the premier of waging a public campaign to turn them into “public enemies.”

Holding a photo of Goldin, Netanyahu says that he “vowed that we would bring them home” and “never gave up on that for a moment.”

“We took many actions, but naturally, once we entered Gaza, we were able to do much more. And with God’s help, thanks to the heroism of IDF soldiers and the decisions we made, they came home. Today, Hadar Goldin is coming home,” Netanyahu continues.

“I know the suffering his family has endured. I know the yearning for his return that united all the people of Israel — and today we are united in the fact that we have finally brought him back to his parents, his family, and to a Jewish grave in Israel.”