A hostage saga ends with Ran Gvili’s recovery
The remains of the last Israeli hostage recovered from Gaza, Ran Gvili, were announced Monday, ending what the Associated Press described as a yearslong hostage saga that had transfixed Israel for two and a half years and stalled Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
The announcement brought an outpouring of emotion in Israel after Gvili’s body was recovered. Israelis also looked ahead to the possibility that the ceasefire could move into its second phase, while Gvili’s friends and family said the mourning process could finally begin after a monthslong search.
“We see all the other families whose sons came back and we see in their eyes that they have relief,” Gvili’s sister, Shira Gvili, told the Associated Press in early December. “This is why it’s so important. Because we want to move on with our with our life and just remember Rani.”
What Herzog said and what the recovery changed
Several Israeli leaders posted videos Monday marking the end of the hostage fight, including clips of themselves removing pins of a yellow ribbon. President Isaac Herzog wrote on X that “The entire people of Israel are moved to tears,” and said the recovery was “an operation of immeasurable importance in fulfilling the sacred obligation to redeem captives.”
Herzog said it was the first time since 2014 that Israel did not have any hostages held in Gaza. In 2014, two soldiers were killed and their bodies were taken to Gaza, Israel later recovered one body, and the second was released by Hamas in November.
As part of the ceasefire agreement that took effect Oct. 10, Hamas released 20 living hostages and, over two months, the bodies of 27 of 28 deceased hostages. Hamas said at the time that it could not locate Gvili’s body, leaving his case as the last unresolved element of the first phase.
Hamas’s search and Israel’s identification of the body
The AP said that on Sunday Hamas stated it had exhausted efforts to locate Gvili and had turned over information about the body’s potential location to Israel, with troops searching one of the areas Hamas specified in northern Gaza.
Israel later said Gvili’s remains were identified by his teeth after a major operation to exhume dozens of bodies from a cemetery. Footage on Israeli media showed soldiers embracing as his body was identified and exhumed.
The day of Oct. 7 and the fight at Kibbutz Alumim
According to the AP, on the day of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack Gvili was recovering from a broken shoulder but rushed to assist fellow officers. The AP said he was killed fighting militants trying to enter a kibbutz, and that his body was taken to Gaza.
The Associated Press reported that Israel’s military confirmed Gvili’s death four months later. The AP said he survived his parents, a sister and a brother.
Shira Gvili told the AP that Gvili was at home on the morning of Oct. 7 after being on medical leave from an elite police unit, but when he heard gunmen attacking panicked partygoers at the Nova Music Festival, he headed for the venue with others from his unit. The AP reported that Nova later became the site of the largest civilian massacre in Israeli history, with militants killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostages.
Shira Gvili said Gvili and the other officers never made it to Nova and instead encountered militants at Kibbutz Alumim.
Gvili’s mother, Talik Gvili, told Ynet that Gvili radioed his team to warn that more vehicles carrying terrorists were approaching and that he opened fire as the militants came at him. She said he fought them alone, injured in both his leg and arm, and took down militants.
“Rani, the Shield of Alumim” and the next ceasefire steps
At the entrance to Kibbutz Alumim, the AP reported, a sign bears a photo of Gvili in uniform with his name beneath it. The sign says he is known as “Rani, the Shield of Alumim,” and credits his actions with saving the lives of kibbutz members during the Oct. 7 attacks.
The AP said residents of Alumim survived while migrant workers on the kibbutz faced a different fate; it reported that Haaretz said 22 foreign nationals were killed in agricultural areas outside the kibbutz’s defensive perimeter.
The AP said Gvili’s recovery marks the completion of the first phase of a ceasefire plan associated with U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point outline. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to reopen the Rafah crossing, which runs between Gaza and Egypt and has been largely closed since May 2024.
The next steps, American envoys have been pushing for for about a week, the AP reported, are expected to be more complicated. Key elements described by the AP include deploying an international force to secure Gaza, disarming Hamas, and forming a temporary Palestinian government to run day-to-day affairs under an international board led by Trump.