KFAR SABA, Israel: Tens of thousands of people packed a cemetery in central Israel on Tuesday for the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose body had been held in Gaza for 11 years, overflowing and blocking surrounding streets as somber crowds stood with Israeli flags.
The burial of Lt. Hadar Goldin was a moment of closure for his family, which has traveled the world in a public campaign seeking his return. The huge turnout also reflected the importance of the case for the broader public in Israel, where Goldin became a household name during the struggle to bring his remains home after 4,117 days.
Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of the Trump-brokered ceasefire deal that began last month. The bodies of four hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the current war, are still in Gaza.
Goldin was 23 when he was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. For years before the Oct. 7 attack, posters with the faces of Goldin and Oron Shaul, another soldier whose body was abducted in the same war, stared down from intersections as their families campaigned for the return of their bodies.
Israel’s military long ago determined that Goldin had been killed based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes. The military retrieved Shaul’s body in January.
“Hadar, we waited for you 11 years, that’s a long time. A very long time. I honestly can’t explain how we did it,” Goldin’s mother, Leah, said as she stood next to his grave. Even though there was never any doubt that Goldin had been killed, being able to reach out and touch his body finally allowed her to let go of her last hopes. “I still believed you would jump up and say ‘Everything is fine!’” she said.
Eulogies from Goldin’s siblings, parents, and former fiancée at his funeral never mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also prime minister when Goldin was kidnapped and for most of the period since. They continuously thanked the Israeli military, including reserve soldiers, who tirelessly searched for Goldin’s body over the years.
Netanyahu did not attend the funeral, though Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir gave a eulogy on behalf of the military, and Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker who was the chief of staff during Goldin’s abduction, attended with former military leaders.
’Destroy Israel from the inside’
For years, Israel had four hostages in Gaza: Goldin, Shaul, and two Israelis with mental health issues who had crossed into Gaza on their own and were held since 2014 and 2015.
All four have been returned from Gaza in the past year. Many who spoke at his funeral noted how, with the return of Goldin’s body, the 2014 war had finally ended.
His parents traveled around Israel and around the world, meeting with politicians and leaders, and testifying at the UN in their desperate bid to retrieve his body for burial.
“Hamas’ kidnapping of bodies is attempting to destroy families and destroy Israel from the inside,” said Tzur Goldin, the twin brother of Hadar. He noted how many hundreds of thousands of Israelis over the years had prayed for his brothers return, lit candles, came to protests, wore t-shirts with his photo, or hung up signs in support.
His sister, Ayelet, called it a “historic moment” to finally be able to stand with her family and say the mourner’s kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, over her brother’s body and not over an empty grave. “Suddenly, now that you’re here, I understand how sacred and profound it is to bring you home, because this is where you belong and this is where you need to be,” said Edna Sarusi, Hadar’s former fiancee.
Leah Goldin told The Associated Press earlier this year that recovering her son’s body is part of the social contract between Israel and its citizens, who are required by law to serve in the military.
“Hadar is a soldier who went into combat and they abandoned him, and they destroyed his humanitarian rights and ours as well,” Goldin said. She said that her family often felt frustrated by the lack of support from the government in their struggle to bring Hadar, an artist with a talent for drawing who had just become engaged, home for burial.
Hannibal directive
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israel’s initial efforts to recover Goldin, in what Palestinian witnesses described as heavy and indiscriminate shelling.
Fearing a soldier had fallen into enemy hands, Israel invoked its so-called “Hannibal” directive, a protocol that allowed the heavy use of force to prevent the capture of a comrade, and Israeli forces attacked a neighborhood on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah with artillery fire, tanks shells and airstrikes, killing over 110 Palestinians.
Palestinian residents described a terrifying ordeal as they fled their homes and searched for cover amid heavy shelling of the area. Human rights groups identified 121 people killed and accused Israel of committing war crimes by allegedly using disproportionate or indiscriminate force and failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The directive was canceled by the military in 2016 following heavy criticism. In 2017, the military introduced a revised version.
In the 2014 war, over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, and widespread damage was inflicted on Gaza’s infrastructure. Another 73 people were killed on the Israeli side during 50 days of fighting.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military announced it had dismantled the tunnel shaft in Rafah where Goldin’s body was kidnapped.
Palestinians in Gaza still struggling to access food
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 251 people were kidnapped. Four bodies of hostages remain in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 69,182. Its count — generally considered by independent experts as reliable — does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children.
Displaced Palestinians in central Gaza say they continue to rely heavily on charity kitchens for their only daily meal, as soaring market prices and the lack of income have left them struggling to afford daily living costs.
Scores of people, most of them children, lined up with empty pots at a charity kitchen in Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday waiting to be served rice — the only food available that day.
“The rockets and planes stopped but increasing living costs has been the hardest weapon used against us,” said Mohamed Al-Naqlah, a displaced Palestinian living in Nuseirat.
Tens of thousands attend funeral of Israeli soldier whose remains were held in Gaza for 11 years
https://arab.news/ctj88
Tens of thousands attend funeral of Israeli soldier whose remains were held in Gaza for 11 years
- The huge turnout also reflected the importance of the case for the broader public in Israel
- Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of the Trump-brokered ceasefire deal that began last month
What the lifting of the RSF’s Kadugli siege means for Sudanese civilians
- Sudanese Armed Forces advance raises hopes for aid access as famine and displacement grip South Kordofan
- Analysts warn humanitarian relief remains fragile amid continued fighting, stalled talks, and volatile front lines
RIYADH: As Sudan’s devastating conflict approaches its third anniversary, the army announced on Tuesday that it has broken the years-long siege on Kadugli, the famine-stricken capital of South Kordofan, in what analysts say could signal a shift in the war’s momentum.
The army’s breakthrough, announced days after a similar advance in nearby Dilling, offered South Kordofan residents a reprieve from a deepening humanitarian crisis that had triggered mass displacement and widespread hunger, sparking hopes that aid could finally resume.
The oil-rich Kordofan region has become the latest front line in Sudan’s conflict, toward which the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shifted their focus after seizing El-Fasher, one of the army’s last strongholds in Darfur, last October.
Joining forces with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, which controls stretches of territory in Kordofan and beyond, the Abu Dhabi-backed RSF tightened a blockade that had intermittently isolated Kadugli and Dilling since the war began.
The siege deepened the already dire famine conditions, later confirmed by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in November, in the city and in El-Fasher.
Although the army’s recent operation has reopened the road between Kadugli and Dilling, aid organizations say sustained humanitarian access is still vulnerable to renewed fighting and insecurity in surrounding areas.
Mathilde Vu, the advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Sudan, said aid trucks have started arriving in Dilling, which is a “good sign.”
“We hope this means more supplies into Kadugli soon,” she told Arab News, but warning that famine in the city will not be reversed overnight.
“Humanitarian access needs to be guaranteed immediately and permanently,” she said, calling for global pressure to ensure the warring parties abide by international law and not attack nor block entry of aid.
On Thursday, Mohanad El-Balal, co-founder of Khartoum Aid Kitchen, posted photos on X showing trucks of aid from Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission heading to Kadugli.
However, humanitarian organizations and global hunger monitors warned that without a sustainable peace, the lifting of the siege on Kadugli and Dilling will offer only a temporary relief for civilians.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network says famine conditions will probably persist until May even though some commercial supplies have started reaching South Kordofan.
“Access is likely to be volatile as the area remains heavily contested, and joint RSF-SPLM-N forces are expected to seek to regain control,” the monitor said.
It noted that the arrival of large numbers of displaced people in rural areas around the Western Nuba Mountains near Dilling, combined with a troop buildup, insecurity, depleted harvests and restricted trade, could push conditions beyond famine thresholds by May.
Continued fighting in the area, even after the lifting of the siege, is expected to further impede aid efforts, warned humanitarian organizations.
Hours after the army entered Kadugli, the RSF launched a drone attack that hit a medical center in Kadugli, killing 15 people including seven children, according to Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the war.
The next day, local media reported that a similar drone strike on a military hospital, attributed to the RSF-SPLM-N alliance, killed one and injured eight.
The fighting had already pushed more than 88,000 people to flee the Kordofan region since October, according to UN figures.
Aid agencies expect that figure to grow to 100,000 based on new reports of large-scale displacements in Al-Quoz, Habila, and Ar-Reif Ash Shargi in South Kordofan, as well as continued near-daily displacement out of Kadugli and Dilling.
On Thursday, the IPC issued an alert, confirming that famine has now spread to two cities in North Darfur — Um Baru and Kernoi. It projects that acute malnutrition will continue to spread in 2026, with nearly 4.2 million estimated cases compared with 3.7 million in 2025.
“Prolonged displacement, conflict, and erosion of health, water and food systems are expected to increase acute malnutrition and food insecurity,” the IPC said.
Although supply lines and access to the people of Kadugli and Dilling are expected to improve, it said the “conflict continues to drive displacement, looting, and severe disruptions to livelihoods, trade, access to services, and mutual and humanitarian aid.”
Regular shelling and drone strikes on civilian sites and infrastructure have caused conditions to deteriorate in both towns, the monitor added.
Against this backdrop, the US and UN co-hosted a fundraising event in Washington on Wednesday to appeal for aid for Sudan, launching a new Sudan Humanitarian Fund with $700 million.
However, this figure is a long way from meeting the $2.9 billion requested by the UN’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which was only 5.5 percent funded as of Feb. 3. The 2025 plan received just 38.7 percent of what was needed.
While the military breakthrough in Kordofan is a significant development, observers cautioned that peace remains a distant prospect as mediation efforts stall and the warring parties continue to vie for control over different parts of the country.
The UN estimates more than 40,000 people have been killed since the war began and 14 million displaced, triggering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides are accused of war crimes. In Darfur, the RSF has even been accused of genocide — and Abu Dhabi has been accused of backing the RSF.
Last year, a detailed report produced by Amnesty International provides evidence for the presence of UAE armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles in Sudan being used by the RSF in particular. Amnesty also accuses the RSF of war crimes.
The army now controls the capital Khartoum along with the northern, central and eastern regions, and the strategic Red Sea city Port Sudan. The army’s next objective is Darfur — the last region under RSF control.
Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that advances on the battlefield had not alleviated civilian suffering.
“Every day we see new overloaded trucks with women and children fleeing fighting and starvation in South Kordofan to South Sudan, which is also in a deep economic crisis,” Egeland posted on X. “It is the worst crisis in the largest humanitarian catastrophe in the world.”
Last month, the US and Saudi Arabia presented the Sudanese Armed Forces with the latest truce proposal. Speaking to reporters after the breakthrough on Tuesday, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said there would be no truce as long as the RSF occupies cities.
“We respond to all calls for peace and we respond to any call to end the war, but ending the war will not be at the expense of Sudanese blood,” he said. “There must be no truce that strengthens the enemy, no ceasefire should allow this militia to regain its strength.”
Analysts believe the army’s latest breakthroughs in Kadugli and Dilling are a sign that momentum is beginning to shift against the RSF.
Mariam Wahba, research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote on Thursday that the army’s victory has “weakened the RSF’s control over strategic population centers in South Kordofan by disrupting the rebel group’s supply lines.”
Another political analyst told Arab News that Kadugli’s liberation was “a strategic surprise by all measures,” overturning the balance of power and redrawing the map of control in western Sudan.
During Wednesday’s fundraiser in Washington, Massad Boulos, US senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, confirmed that the US has put forward a “comprehensive proposal” for a humanitarian truce that could be agreed on in the next few weeks.
He said that the plan had already gained the support of members of the Quad — comprising the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — which has been coordinating diplomatic efforts to end the war in Sudan.
However, for peace to succeed, Wahba said Washington must go beyond its current focus on humanitarian aid and ceasefire diplomacy by adopting a dual strategy of pressure and alignment.
She said the US should act to disrupt the RSF’s financial networks and arms supply chains to weaken its capacity to wage war, while applying pressure on the army, through sanctions or diplomatic isolation, to exclude hardline Islamists from its ranks.
Washington, she said, should leverage its ties in aligning efforts with regional powers — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and the UAE — around shared objectives such as preventing Sudan from becoming a safe haven for militias and transnational criminal networks.
“Coordinated pressure would provide Washington with greater leverage to shape ceasefire terms, marginalize spoilers, and influence Sudan’s postwar trajectory without direct US military involvement,” she said.
On Tuesday, Burhan vowed that he would liberate all Sudanese territory.
“I want to assure our people everywhere — in Al-Geneina, in Al-Tina, and in all other places — the army will reach them. The armed forces will reach them.”
To the people of Al-Fasher he said: “We are coming.”
