Parents of Hadar Goldin thank IDF, ‘and nobody else,’ for bringing son’s body home after 11 years

Leah and Simcha Goldin stand outside their Kfar Saba home to offer thanks for the release of the body of their son, Hadar Goldin, after it was held by Hamas for 11 years in Gaza.

In an implied criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the political leadership, Simcha Goldin says he credits “the IDF, and no one else,” for bringing the body of his son, a Givati combat soldier who was killed in Gaza in 2014, back home to Israel for burial.

“We have been talking about IDF values for 11 years. That’s what Hadar left us, the value that we don’t leave soldiers in the field, we fight for fighters,” says Goldin’s father.

Leah Goldin notes that they stood in the same location in August 2014, shortly after Hadar was killed, and called on the government and IDF not to leave their son’s body behind in Gaza.

She says it appeared clear to them at the time that the Israeli government would never leave a soldier behind. Instead, they had to fight for the past 11 years to bring him home. “It took us 11 years to get him back, with the help of the IDF and the security services,” she says.

“We went around the world to do the impossible, to demonstrate that we have shared values, no matter the religion or race, that all have the responsibility to bring home a soldier’s body from the battlefield for proper burial,” says Leah Goldin. “These are the values we fought for. We went through so many disappointments.”

She specifies that at the time of the COVID pandemic, “we could have got [Hadar and the three other hostages then held in Gaza] back in return for vaccines” — indicating that Israel could have conditioned supplying vaccines to Gaza on the freeing of the four. But “the decisionmakers here didn’t do it.”

Leah Goldin has previously accused Netanyahu of turning the issue of returning fallen soldiers “into a problem for the families [alone],” and of turning her family “into enemies of the people.”

Leah also said that they were fighting to secure the return of abducted soldiers, and, referring to the Hamas invasion of October 7, asks: “Who thought of civilians being kidnapped?”

The Goldins say that their son is a symbol of what can be done in Israel.

“October 7 was a call and an alarm clock for everyone in Israel,” says Leah Goldin. “So look at us, and come have a coffee with us, and we’ll explain to you that we must fight for our kids because without our kids, we have no continuity.”

“It’s simple and doable, it’s Jewish and Israeli,” adds Simcha Goldin. “We brought back the symbol and now we have to protect it and fight for it.”