Red Cross receives body of a hostage in Gaza that Hamas claims is Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin

TEL AVIV Israel AP The Red Cross received on Sunday the remains of a hostage in Gaza that Hamas states is the body of an Israeli soldier who was killed in and who has been held in Gaza for the past years His remains are the only ones at this moment held in Gaza since before the latest two-year war between Israel and Hamas Hamas reported it discovered the body of the soldier Hadar Goldin in a tunnel in the enclave s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday Goldin was killed on Aug two hours after a ceasefire took effect ending that year s war between Israel and Hamas The remains will be transferred to Israel and to the national forensic institute for identification If the body is identified as Goldin s there will be four bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza His return would be a considerable advance in the U S -brokered truce and close a painful -year saga for his family At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed that holding the body for so long has caused great agony of his family which will now be able to give him a Jewish burial Bringing Israel s fallen home Goldin s family spearheaded a very masses campaign along with the family of another soldier whose body was taken in to bring their sons home for burial Israel recovered the remains of the other soldier earlier this year Netanyahu explained the country would continue trying to bring home the bodies of Israelis still being held across enemy lines such as Eli Cohen an Israeli spy hung in Damascus in Israeli media citing anonymous administrators have stated that Hamas was delaying the release of Goldin s body in hopes of negotiating safe passage for more than militants surrounded by Israeli forces and trapped in the enclave s southernmost city of Rafah Gila Gamliel the Minister of Innovation Science and System and a member of Netanyahu s Likud party described Army radio that Israel is not negotiating for a deal within a deal There are agreements whose implementation is guaranteed by the mediators and we shouldn t allow anyone to come know and play games and to reopen the agreement she commented Hamas made no comment on a attainable exchange for its fighters stuck in the so-called yellow zone which is controlled by Israeli forces though they acknowledged that there are clashes taking place there Hamas made no comment on a realizable exchange for its fighters stuck in the so-called yellow zone which is controlled by Israeli forces though they acknowledged that there are clashes taking place there Positive growth in the truce Since the ceasefire began last month militants have circulated the remains of hostages As part of the truce deal the militants are expected to return all of the remains of hostages For each Israeli hostage returned Israel has been releasing the remains of Palestinians Ahmed Dheir director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis explained that the remains of have now been returned with identified The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct in which people were kidnapped and killed in Israel mostly civilians On Saturday Gaza s Medical Ministry noted the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to The ministry part of the Hamas-run ruling body and staffed by curative professionals maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts A mother s pain Back in the Israeli military determined based on evidence ascertained in the tunnel where Goldin s body was taken including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes that he had been killed in the attack His family held what Leah Goldin now calls a pseudo-funeral including Goldin s shirt and fringes at the urging of Israel s military rabbis But the lingering uncertainty was like a knife constantly making new cuts Leah Goldin narrated the Associated Press earlier this year that returning her son s body is an ethical and religious value part of the sacrosanct pact Israel makes with its citizens who are required by law to serve in the military Hadar is a soldier who went to combat and they abandoned him and they destroyed his humanitarian rights and ours as well Goldin disclosed She disclosed her family often felt alone in their struggle to bring Hadar a talented artist who had just gotten engaged home for burial In the dizzying days after Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct the Goldin family threw themselves into attempting to help hundreds of families of the people Hamas had dragged into Gaza Initially the Goldins exposed themselves shunned as advocacy for the Oct hostages surged We were a symbol of failure Goldin recalled They stated us we aren t like you our kids will come back soon Chehayeb published from Beirut Find more of AP s Israel-Hamas coverage at https apnews com hub israel-hamas-war Source