Jerusalem – IN PHOTOS: Soldier Who Had Formerly Been Feared Kidnapped Laid To Rest

Jerusalem – Thousands gathered at the Kfar Saba military cemetery to bid farewell to Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed in an attack by gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.

Goldin had been listed as missing in action and feared kidnapped since Friday, but late Saturday night Chief IDF Rabbi Brigadier General Rafi Peretz ruled that Goldin had been killed in action, due to findings from the scene and Halachic rulings, the IDF said Sunday.

They gave no further details about how the decision was made to rule him dead and fit for burial.

Attending the funeral were Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who is a relative of the Goldin family, along with Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, MK Danny Danon, and Bar Ilan University President Professor Daniel Hershkowitz.

According to the Times Of Israel, Edna Sarusi, Hadar Goldin’s fiance, eulogizes the fallen soldier, recalling how easygoing he was when it came to making their wedding arrangements and that he would often say, “All I want Edna, is that you be a bride.”

“I didn’t expect you to leave me so quickly,” Sarusi says, her voice choked with emotion. “I relied only on you. I don’t know what to do.”

“I though we would be together forever,” she says. “I love you so much, and I miss you so much.”

Sarusi spoke of how proud she was to see the attention the Goldin gave his soldiers when she visited him in the past in the army.

“I so wanted to be your bride, Hadar,” she says.

His father, Simcha Goldin, said it was hard in a way to mourn a guy like Hadar, who was always smiling, a beaming smile that all of Israel came to know from the endless news reports since he went missing in a firefight in southern Gaza where he was killed along with two other soldiers Friday morning.

Hadar, his father said, always wanted to bring betterness (tikkun) to the world, and that he “was a great young man, just like all the other ones we [Israel] have buried recently.”

Hadar’s twin brother Tzur talked about how their lives were and remain intertwined and that “the happiness in our house won’t be extinguished, your dreams came true in your life, and they will continue to come true after your death.”

In the next few months Hadar was set to marry to his fiancee Edna, and his family was working on wedding preparations when they received the news Friday that he was missing in action.

Embraced by Hadar’s mother Hedva, Edna said she didn’t know where to start, what to say about a man she was so proud to know, to be a part of, an officer admired by his soldiers, a loving son and brother beloved by his family.

She talked about how much everyone will miss him, and that things wont be the same without him, but that “if you want us to live we will, and give us the strength to make you happy.”

She also vowed that he will live on as a part of her life and that “everyone I meet will know you, you will walk with me hand in hand.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Goldin’s parents, Simcha and Leah, ahead of the funeral late Sunday afternoon.

“Hadar was a tremendous personality, a great hero,” said Netanyahu. “I know that you are going through terrible agony, the feeling that a part of you has been taken away and you are no longer whole.”

“This is pain that has no relief, not even for a moment,” he continued. “I hope that you will find consolation in the fact that he fell to uphold the people of Israel in the struggle for our independence.”

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