Israel confirmed last night that the remains handed over earlier by the Palestinian Islamist movements "Hamas" and "Islamic Jihad" are of a hostage - Israeli citizen Meni Goddard, killed on October 7, 2023 at the age of 73, BTA reported.
According to the ceasefire agreement that came into effect in Gaza on October 10 under US pressure, "Hamas" and its allies must return the bodies of three other hostages - two Israelis and a Thai.
"Following the identification process carried out by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, [army] officials informed the family of Meni Goddard that his body had been repatriated to Israel," said a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meni Goddard was killed in his home in Kibbutz Beeri along with his 63-year-old wife, Ayelet Goddard. He was quickly identified as a hostage, but his fate was unknown until the Israeli army announced in February 2024 that he had been killed on the day of the attack, with his wife's body found and identified at the scene.
The couple have four children and six grandchildren.
According to his kibbutz, Meni Goddard was born in Tel Aviv and his mother was a Holocaust survivor. He moved to Beersheba as a teenager. Throughout his life, he has been a soccer player, a soldier in the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, a lifeguard, a printer, a grocer, a soccer coach, and was responsible for the kibbutz's swimming pool and finances.