Israeli Intelligence Team Locates and Recovers Hadar Goldin’s Body After 11 Years in Gaza
Twelve years after Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was killed and abducted by Hamas militants during a clash in Rafah at the end of Operation Protective Edge, his family will for the first time visit his grave on the anniversary of his death this coming Sunday. Goldin’s body was held by Hamas in Gaza for over 11 years before being returned to Israel in November 2025. Much of the intelligence and military operations to locate and retrieve Goldin’s remains were kept secret until now.
A small Israeli intelligence unit named "Bring Your Sons Home," led by Colonel M., spearheaded the nearly nine-year effort to find Goldin’s body. The team, formed in 2015 at the request of then IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, focused on gathering actionable intelligence about Israeli captives and missing soldiers held by Hamas, including Goldin and Oron Shaul. The unit used innovative methods, including analyzing tunnel graffiti and intercepted communications, to map Hamas’s tunnel network and track movements related to Goldin’s remains.
Goldin was killed on August 1, 2014, during an ambush in Rafah when Hamas fighters captured his body and took it into a tunnel. Initial assumptions held that his body was buried under collapsed tunnels, but intelligence later suggested Hamas moved the remains to a secret location. The team’s breakthrough came after a Hamas double agent inadvertently revealed information about the body’s location, though Hamas later exposed and neutralized this source.
In 2024, Israeli forces launched a complex operation in Rafah to access the tunnel where Goldin was believed to be held. The tunnel was heavily fortified with multiple levels, booby traps, and secret chambers. Fighting Hamas fighters inside was intense, and the operation led to the collapse of Hamas’s command in Rafah after killing key commanders. Despite extensive searches, Goldin’s body was not immediately found.
The capture of Marwan al-Hams, a Hamas doctor who had preserved Goldin’s body and later became the hospital director in Rafah, was a critical intelligence victory. Although al-Hams refused to cooperate, pressure tactics continued. Following a ceasefire agreement in October 2025 and sustained Israeli pressure, Hamas returned Goldin’s body on November 9, 2025. Two days later, Goldin was buried in Israel.
The recovery of Hadar Goldin’s body is seen as a major intelligence and operational achievement, involving hundreds of Israeli soldiers, Shin Bet, and military intelligence personnel. His father, Simcha Goldin, expressed that the operation’s success also symbolized the dismantling of Hamas’s Rafah brigade and the fulfillment of the mission to bring Israeli soldiers home. The intelligence team’s name was inspired by a Naomi Shemer poem referencing the biblical prophecy of redemption and return.
