‘No one left behind’: After 11 years, Hadar Goldin laid to rest with words of love and reckoning

Lt. Hadar Goldin, an Israel Defense Forces officer killed in Gaza in 2014 and held there by Hamas for more than a decade, was laid to rest on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by tens of thousands, including the IDF chief of staff.

The long-awaited funeral was a moment of closure and reckoning for Goldin’s relatives and, as noted in their eulogies, for the country.

For years, Goldin’s family was at times a lonely voice campaigning for the release of his body from Gaza, along with that of fellow fallen soldier Oron Shaul. That cause was greatly amplified after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, when Goldin was included among the more than 250 hostages whose return became a national mission.

Still, Goldin’s family waited through two more painful years, as hundreds of hostages, living and dead, including Shaul, were returned to Israel, with no guarantee or timetable for their son’s return. Finally, on Sunday, his body came back. He was the fifth-to-last hostage to be released after October 7, and the final casualty of the 2014 war to come home.

“Hadar, we waited for you 11 years, it’s a long time,” Leah Goldin, his mother, said in her eulogy at the Kfar Saba military cemetery, her voice breaking. “A long time.”

She continued, “I can’t really explain how we did it, except that at every moment when we almost sank, someone in the family would jump up and say, ‘But what would Hadar say?'”

The eulogies, including those delivered by Goldin’s parents and siblings, his commander, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and singer and actor Idan Amedi, shared memories of Goldin. Some wore T-shirts with Goldin’s picture. They also took the government to task for the extraordinarily long time it took to return his body.

Goldin’s father, Simcha, spoke loving words about his son, and delivered a harsh message to the country. In remarks on Sunday, he had pointedly thanked the IDF, “and no one else,” for bringing his son back.

“Over 11 years, we abandoned Hadar in enemy captivity,” he said at the funeral. “We became addicted to money, honor and power. We, the Goldin family, saw the great moral decline through Hadar’s abandonment. We failed to convince Israeli society — until Simchat Torah, October 7,” the day of the Hamas-led attack.

He called on those present to take inspiration from his son’s example by looking for the best in people and acting decently toward others.

“Alongside our tears, remember always Hadar’s smile,” his father said. “All we can do is to follow his example. I ask you to act a little more like Hadar and gain a little more hadar,” which means “splendor” in Hebrew.

Words of rebuke also came from Idan Amedi, a singer, actor and IDF reservist who was wounded fighting in Gaza in January 2024. Amedi, who sang a parting song, titled “Finished,” to Goldin at the funeral, took aim at the government for the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack, for its objection to a state commission of inquiry that would investigate the onslaught, and for its decision to rename the subsequent war the “War of Revival.”

“October 7 wasn’t a tragedy, it was a failure,” he said. “We use the word ‘tragedy’ for natural disasters, for fires… October 7 was a failure. It was willful blindness despite all the warnings written on the wall.”

He continued, “This is not a war of revival. Revival is a painful process, for a person or a nation, that recognizes trauma or crisis, that acknowledges the fall or destruction, that doesn’t sweep facts under the rug.”

עידן עמדי בביצוע מרגש.

בלוויה אמר: ״התרסקה אצלי תפיסת העולם לגבי ישראל. גילינו מחדל ועוד אחד. חשבנו שיש חדר במדינת ישראל שבו יושבים אנשים שחושבים איך להשיב את החטופים, שיש מי שלוקח ברצינות את איומי החמאס ומנהרות הטרור, שפידיון שבויים הוא ציווי אלוהי, מוסרי. גילינו שטעינו״. pic.twitter.com/MeHrwylofa

— yayafink (יאיא פינק) (@yayafink) November 11, 2025

Goldin, 23 at the time of his death, was killed in Gaza on August 1, 2014, just over an hour after the start of a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire during that year’s Gaza war. Hamas gunmen emerged from a tunnel in the southeastern part of Rafah and attacked troops of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, killing three soldiers, including Goldin. His body was dragged into the tunnel by the terror operatives.

Goldin’s older sister Ayelet thanked the soldiers who served with her brother and tried to rescue him during that war. She also thanked the IDF for bringing him home.

“You brought [back] my little brother. Not Hamas — you. Your arms. You brought him the honor he deserved,” she said.

Addressing her brother, she said, “I stand here feeling that these are historic moments — moments that symbolize the light. Over the past two days, I’ve seen you everywhere; the whole country was cloaked in hadar.”

She added, “You, who went out to protect us and gave everything — just look how many have fought for you with determination, without distinction of religion or politics, in every possible way.”

Eden Sarusi, who was Goldin’s fiancée at the time of his death, recounted how she had become close to his family.

“I didn’t get to marry you,” said Sarusi. But, she said, she learned “how to fight for things that are important to us.”

His twin brother Tzur credited the country as a whole for his brother’s return.

“Our victory in this war is that we all, all of Israel, are here for each other,” he said. “We don’t give up on one another. No one is left behind.”

He added, “Rest in peace. Your story isn’t over; an entire nation brought you home.”

Several of those who spoke, including another brother, Chemi, called for the return of the remaining four deceased hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Look at this nation standing here, this family,” he said, addressing the terror group. “Because you shouldn’t mess with this family, the family of Israel. If you think you still have a few more hostages, think again, because we’ll bring everyone back.”

He called Hamas “villains who aren’t Jews or Christians or Muslims, who are made of just mud and filth.”

Givati Brigade commander Col. Netanel Shamaka, as well as Zamir, said that Goldin’s return marks the end of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF’s official name for the 2014 Gaza offensive.

Since the day of Goldin’s abduction, Shamaka said, “We have educated an entire generation of warriors and commanders in your spirit.”

“In every command course, in every training program, we told your story, we told of spirit, sense of responsibility, integrity, and professionalism,” he said. During the current war in Gaza, Shamaka said that everywhere the Givati Brigade operated, “we thought of bringing you back.”

Zamir also paid tribute to Goldin’s family.

“Today we accompany Hadar on his final journey, which he has long deserved, after a period in which you, dear family, have become a compass and a conscience for the entire people of Israel, a compass that we in the IDF will continue to carry forever,” Zamir said.

It was the second funeral for Goldin. Shortly after his death, the IDF Rabbinate declared him deceased for the purposes of Jewish burial and grieving rituals. His family held a funeral then in Kfar Saba, attended by thousands, and sat shiva, the traditional seven-day Jewish mourning period.

In her eulogy on Tuesday, Goldin’s mother alluded to the pain that has endured.

“We’re here because of everything you left us, all of your instructions, and just who you are,” Leah Goldin said.

“Still, I kept waiting for you to suddenly appear and say, ‘Everything is okay.’”