Israel: Soldier Reported Captured was 'Killed in Battle'

The soldier that Israel claimed Hamas militants captured Friday, as a temporary cease-fire to the conflict in Gaza rapidly unraveled, is dead, Israel’s military said.

“Lieutenant Hadar Goldin … was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Friday, August 1,” the Israel Defense Forces announced early Sunday.

It’s not clear whether Goldin, 23, was captured as the IDF had previously said, or whether he died alongside two other soldiers in an armed clash in Gaza. Military spokesman Peter Lerner said Goldin was promoted to lieutenant posthumously.

Speculation about his fate was already up in the air after the armed wing of Hamas, the al Qassam Brigades, announced it had lost contact with a group of its fighters in the Rafah area — the same area where Goldin was reportedly taken.

In a statement posted on its website, the militant group says it assumes all the fighters died in an Israeli airstrike, including possibly an Israeli soldier. The group — which denied having info on Goldin — stopped short of saying the soldier was captured, using the phrasing “assuming he was captured by the fighters.”

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