Hundreds of Israelis gathered on Tuesday in the central town of Kfar Saba to lay to rest army officer Hadar Goldin, whose remains were returned by Hamas after being held in Gaza for more than a decade.
Crowds packed the military cemetery, with some climbing onto rooftops to glimpse the funeral, while others watched from plastic chairs in front of a large outdoor screen.
Blue-and-white Israeli flags fluttered in the wind, as mourners held the young lieutenant’s portrait alongside a homemade banner reading: “We will remember forever.”
Israel received Goldin’s remains on Sunday as part of an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.
#His father, Simcha Goldin, hailed his son as a “Jewish warrior”, while urging tearful mourners to “behave righteously and do not hate one another. That is Hadar’s legacy.”
“I ask you to act the same way, and to let there be a little more of Hadar in our daily lives,” he said
Hadar Goldin, 23, was killed on August 1, 2014, during a previous Israeli offensive in Gaza known as “Operation Protective Edge”.
He was leading a mission to destroy Hamas tunnels when he was ambushed, killed, and his body seized just hours into a short-lived humanitarian truce.
His return closes an agonizing 11-year ordeal that haunted both his family and the nation.
“Today is a hard day, but I am happy because Hadar’s coming was a dream,” Israel Blumshtein, a 76-year-old resident of Kfar Saba, told AFP, adding that he had kept a picture of Goldin in his car for six years.
Punch/Timothy Kayode
