(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) In a second Israelis lengthy yearned for however few dared to imagine would come, the physique of the ultimate hostage held in Gaza was recognized and introduced again to Israel on Monday, 843 days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Ran Gvili, 24, a police officer killed combating the Hamas invaders, had been the last of 251 individuals kidnapped that day to stay captive, following the return of the remaining of the hostages, dwelling and useless, underneath the present ceasefire. For greater than 50 days, he was the one hostage nonetheless held in Gaza, amid Hamas’s insistence that it had been unable to find him, leaving his household and nation fearful he may by no means be recovered.
But on Monday afternoon, a day after asserting it had launched a pinpoint search effort in a Muslim cemetery in Gaza City thanks to particular intelligence, the Israel Defense Forces mentioned it had positioned Gvili’s stays and was bringing them throughout the border, again to his dad and mom and siblings, and to his fellow Israelis, for a correct burial.
Gvili’s return seals an excruciating chapter within the historical past of Israel and the Jewish individuals. For greater than two years, amid warfare and adversity, lots throughout Israel and the world had vowed to maintain protesting, praying and combating “until the last hostage”, united throughout borders and backgrounds within the singular dedication to “bring them home”.
Now, that objective has been achieved. For the primary time since 2014, no hostages are held within the Gaza Strip.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir joins troops in Gaza City for a ceremony honoring slain hostage Master Sgt. Ran Gvili after his physique was recovered in Gaza City, on January 26, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which organised the unprecedented activism for the captives since instantly after the October 7 assault, honoured Gvili as “first to go in; last to return”.
“The entire people of Israel are moved to tears,” President Isaac Herzog mentioned in a press release. “After many difficult years, for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment. May Ran’s memory be a blessing.”
For Gvili’s household, the information was a balm in addition to a blow: their son and brother had been discovered. But for a household that had spoken of all the time holding onto the slim hope he could be alive — regardless of authorities stressing there was clear proof he was not — it was additionally the ultimate affirmation that he had certainly been killed.
Talik Gvili, Ran’s mom, who had spoken and advocated tirelessly for her captive son, mentioned studying of his return introduced “a relief, after these two and a half years, even though we hoped for a different ending”, throughout a name with IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir.
On Facebook, she wrote: “The first to go out, the last to come back. Our hero.”
Portrait of Talik Gvili, mom of the only remaining deceased hostage in Gaza, Ran Gvili, December 10, 2025. Ran Gvili’s physique was positioned by the IDF and returned to Israel on January 26, 2026. (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90)
His funeral will probably be held on Wednesday in his hometown of Meitar, close to Beersheba.
A prolonged search
The Israel–Hamas ceasefire, signed in early October 2025, mandated that the phobia group launch all dwelling and deceased hostages in its possession inside 72 hours of the settlement taking impact. But the method of the deceased hostages’ return dragged on for a lot longer than that, as our bodies have been intermittently discovered and introduced again over the following two months.
By early December, Gvili’s was the one physique remaining in Gaza. While his picture hung in public areas throughout Israel, activism for the hostages had receded, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum started to wind down, and his household opted for smaller rallies calling for his launch.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (middle) and Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor (proper), salute the physique of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, after it was positioned in jap Gaza City, January 26, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
In the next weeks, searches passed off throughout the enclave, as his household and the nation obtained blended indicators as to whether or not his stays have been possible to be positioned.
His physique was discovered on Monday in a Muslim cemetery in jap Gaza City, within the enclave’s north.
The IDF and Shin Bet safety company mentioned that the intelligence indicating Gvili could also be buried on the cemetery had been identified for a while, although lately the image was made clearer by intelligence-gathering operations, together with the seize of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, and knowledge confirmed by Hamas to Israel through mediators.
Other intelligence leads had recommended that the physique could be, or beforehand had been, in a tunnel on the Israeli aspect of the ceasefire line, which fight engineers searched, at Shifa Hospital, or at a unique cemetery. The latter two websites are positioned on the Hamas aspect of the Yellow Line and weren’t searched by Israel amid the ceasefire.
The Shin Bet mentioned that the Islamic Jihad operative who was captured by Israeli forces in Gaza City a month in the past offered info that strengthened the intelligence assessments that Gvili was buried on the cemetery in query.
Itzik Gvili, left, and Talik Gvili at a rally in Meitar on January 24, 2026. (Courtesy)
The operative had been concerned in army exercise towards Israeli forces throughout the warfare and was suspected of being “knowledgeable about the details of the burial location” of Gvili, in accordance to the Shin Bet.
During his interrogation, the operative “described his involvement in transferring the body between several locations and also identified additional individuals who were aware of its whereabouts”, the safety company mentioned.
A search operation on the cemetery, involving quite a few troops and forensic specialists, together with 20 dentists, started over the weekend.
The IDF started exhuming a whole bunch of our bodies on the cemetery and, earlier than Monday, had already examined round 250 of them for a possible match to Gvili.
A couple of hours earlier than the information of his identification was introduced, dentists deployed to the cemetery have been in a position to verify that the dental construction of one physique matched Gvili’s. In addition, fingerprints and different exams have been carried out to verify his id, in accordance to the army.
The search passed off on the Israeli aspect of the Yellow Line that divides Gaza between Israeli and Hamas management, although some forces have been deployed on the Hamas aspect for safety functions, army officers mentioned.
The IDF mentioned it might be returning all of the opposite exhumed our bodies to their graves and cleansing up the cemetery, out of respect for the useless.
Footage confirmed IDF troopers on the cemetery singing Ani Ma’amin (I Believe). With the lyrics, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and, though he tarry, I will wait daily for his coming”, the tune is a Jewish assertion of religion typically invoked as a logo of resilience.
Another video, taken in Gaza, exhibits IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, Southern Command chief Maj Gen Yaniv Asor and different officers and troops saluting Gvili’s physique after it was positioned.
The forces have been heard singing Hatikvah, Israel’s nationwide anthem.
IDF troops function at a cemetery in Gaza City throughout a seek for the physique of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, in a handout picture issued on January 26, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
Gvili was awaiting surgical procedure for a damaged shoulder on October 7, 2023, when he started listening to in regards to the Hamas invasion, a 50-minute drive from his household dwelling in Meitar.
He threw on his uniform, hopped on one of his bikes, and sped to Kibbutz Alumim, the place he battled Hamas terrorists for hours earlier than he was killed.
“We knew where he was, he sent a location, he sent a selfie of his injury, and was in touch with his staff — he knew that backup was on the way,” his mom mentioned in a latest interview with The Times of Israel.
Only on January 30, 2024 did the IDF inform the Gvilis that intelligence confirmed that Ran had been killed and his physique kidnapped to Gaza.
‘We brought everyone back’
Contacting the household after Gvili’s physique was discovered, Police Chief Daniel Levy spoke together with his father, Itzik, and confused the “determination and bravery” proven by Gvili, “an officer in the Yasam [counter-terror] unit who shielded Israeli civilians with his body, sacrificing himself”.
Levy instructed Itzik Gvili that he “extended a warm embrace to him and his family on behalf of the officers and warriors in the Israel Police”, police mentioned in a press release.
Shira Gvili, sister of Ran Gvili, whose physique was nonetheless held hostage in Gaza, speaks at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on December 5, 2025 (Lior Rotstein/Hostages Forum)
Speaking to the media within the Knesset, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as the return of Gvili’s physique “an extraordinary achievement for the Israel Defense Forces, the State of Israel, the citizens of Israel, because you gave us the backing to complete the work”.
“We promised, and I promised, to bring everyone back, and we brought everyone back,” he mentioned, “to the very last one”.
“Rani is a hero of Israel. He went in first, he came out last. He came home,” Netanyahu mentioned.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar additionally welcomed Gvili’s return, writing that “the promise has been fulfilled” and thanking safety forces “for their tremendous efforts”, in a Hebrew-language put up on X.
Defence Minister Israel Katz mentioned in a press release that Gvili’s return was “a painful moment of closure”, in addition to “a moment that underscores the State of Israel’s commitment to its soldiers and citizens: to bring every single one home”.
Photos of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, displayed in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on January 22, 2026. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The return of Gvili’s physique can be a milestone within the Gaza ceasefire, whose second section US President Donald Trump inaugurated last week, organising organisations that may oversee Gaza’s postwar reconstruction and governance.
Hamas mentioned on Monday that the return of Gvili’s physique proved its dedication to the phrases of the ceasefire.
“The discovery of the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, including the prisoner exchange,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem mentioned in a press release.
Israel will hand over not less than 15 our bodies to Gaza’s Health Ministry after Gvili’s physique is returned, a supply with data of the main points instructed The Times of Israel.
The ratio of Palestinian our bodies handed over for each hostage physique returned is normally 15:1, however as Gvili is the ultimate slain hostage, Israel might hand over extra.
Hamas gunmen seek for the stays of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili within the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, January 7, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Hamas mentioned in its assertion that it’s going to co-operate with a newly fashioned Palestinian technocratic committee meant to run Gaza’s every day affairs. The terror group additionally accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.
“Hamas will continue to adhere to all aspects of the agreement, including facilitating the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and ensuring its success. We call on the mediators and the United States to compel the ‘occupation’ to stop violating the agreement and to implement its required obligations.”
But the following section of the ceasefire, Netanyahu mentioned on Monday, is “disarming Hamas and the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip”.
“The next phase is not reconstruction,” he confused on the Knesset.
“The next phase is disarming Hamas and the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip,” he repeated. Netanyahu mentioned it’s in Israel’s curiosity “to advance this phase, and not to delay it”.
“It will happen the easy way, or the hard way,” the Prime Minister mentioned. “But it will happen.”
The put up The Australian Jewish News appeared first on The Australian Jewish News.
