Missing Israeli Soldier, Who Was Recently Engaged, Declared Dead

Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, a young Israeli soldier who was believed to have been captured by Hamas militants and has been missing since Friday, has now been declared dead. Goldin, the 23-year-old grandson of two Holocaust survivors, will not be returning home to his fiance or to his family, including his twin brother.

Israel had agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire with Hamas, which was to have begun at 8 am on Friday. Just one hour later, a suicide bomber from Hamas killed two Israeli soldiers, according to the Jewish Exponent, after which Lt. Goldin was missing. The jihadist appeared out of one of the many tunnels that Israel is trying to dismantle, as reported by The Inquisiter, tunnels that Hamas has said that it would utilize to unleash unprecedented terror attacks upon Israel, kidnapping and killing Israeli citizens and soldiers. After the attack, Hadar Goldin was missing.

The soldier was taken by other militants involved in the attack into one of the tunnels, as was confirmed by biological evidence in the tunnels as well as the presence of some of his personal gear. Lt. Goldin was declared dead after forensic evidence from the scene, including DNA, was examined. Tests from bodily tissue and fluids were performed, reports Haaretz, and “the DNA testing led to the conclusion that there was no way Goldin could have been captured alive.”

Hamas has been known to capture Israeli citizens and soldiers to use them as negotiation tools, a possibility that was originally thought to have been the case. According to FOX News, the military wing of Hamas denied knowledge of the soldier’s location, and shifted the blame to Israel, saying that Goldin “could have been killed in an Israeli bombing after being kidnapped by Hamas.”

That was not the case. It is now confirmed that Hamas soldiers disappeared into the tunnels with Goldin’s body.

Lt. Hadar Goldin leaves behind a twin brother, Tzur, and another brother, Menahem, and a sister, Ayelet. They come from an Orthodox Jewish family, and spent part of their childhood in Britain, while their parents taught at Cambridge, according to The Times of Israel. Their father is retired battalion commander Simha Goldin, who now teaches Jewish history as a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Lt. Goldin’s grandfathers, on both sides of the family, were Holocaust survivors who fought in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

Goldin also leaves behind a grieving fiance, Edna. The two became engaged just after three Israel teenagers went missing after being kidnapped by Hamas. After an extensive search, the boy were found dead. It was during this tumultuous time that the young Israeli soldier proposed to Edna, and she said, “yes.”

Just hours before the young Israeli soldier’s death was announced, Jerusalem Online reports that a video clip surfaced that had been made in celebration of the young lovers’ engagement in which about 20 of Hadar’s soldier friends sing the song, “Will You Marry Me” by Regev Hod.

On Saturday, before the IDF declared that her missing fiance was confirmed dead, Edna Sarusi made this heartbreaking statement to the press, in the hopes that Goldin would hear her: “Hadar is an Israeli hero. I love you, miss you, and am waiting to dance with you at our wedding.”

They were words he would never hear. At his funeral on Sunday, Vos Iz Neias? reports the poignant words of heartbroken Edna Sarusi:

“I didn’t expect you to leave me so quickly. I relied only on you. I don’t know what to do. I though we would be together forever. I love you so much, and I miss you so much…. I so wanted to be your bride, Hadar.”

Lt. Goldin was a son and a soldier who had a deep love for his family and his country. He and his twin brother told of their great love for Israel in a 2013 interview with Israel National News. He explains his choice to pursue officers’ training along with Tzur: “In life, you can choose to do things for yourself and you can choose to do great things.”

During that interview, Tzur spoke of how close the twin brothers were. He said that they loved to study Talmud together and hike together on the weekends when they were home. He shared that the twins had hopes of coordinating their vacations to be at the same time.

But none of these dreams will ever be. Those dreams are dead with the missing soldier who will never come home. On Sunday, August 3, 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin was laid to rest in Kfar Saba, Israel, another tragedy in the latest conflict between Hamas and Israel.

[images via Voz Iz Neias? and Middle East Institute]