Ran Gvili has been repatriated.
On Monday afternoon, the IDF announced it had located and identified Gvili’s remains, the final hostage held in the Gaza Strip. With that announcement, one of the most painful chapters of Israel’s recent history is finally drawing to a close.
Gvili was murdered on October 7, 2023, while battling Hamas terrorists who had invaded Kibbutz Alumim. His body was abducted to Gaza in the aftermath of the massacre, where he remained for the next 844 days.
During that time, the hostage crisis hung over Israel like a dark cloud. The pain of the hostages’ families, as well as the uncertainty surrounding their fate, served as an open wound for Israeli society, constantly reopened by Hamas propaganda videos, failed negotiations, and internal divisions.
For 844 days, Israel found itself trapped between wars on multiple fronts and fragile ceasefires, unable to fulfill the most fundamental obligation to its citizens: Bringing them all home. Now, with Gvili’s return, that obligation has finally been fulfilled.
But bringing them all home does not absolve Israel’s leadership of responsibility for how long it took, or how high the price became. This moment is not a victory, nor is it a cause for celebration.
It has elicited a quiet, heavy sigh of relief and a somber ending to a period that shook Israeli society to its core. It marks the end of a long and unbearable wait for the Gvili family, and a moment of closure for the hundreds of families whose loved ones were murdered or taken hostage on October 7.
Throughout the war, Israel was forced to confront impossible dilemmas. Military pressure versus diplomatic negotiations. Strategic objectives versus humanitarian costs. The hostages and the moral imperatives they represented were at the heart of every single conundrum.
Ran’s mother, Talik Gvili, had campaigned relentlessly during that time to bring her son home, going as far as to demand the suspension of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza deal until Hamas fulfills its commitment to return all the hostages, both living and dead. Talik even flew out to Washington in recent weeks to meet with US officials, as part of her battle to be able to give her son the dignified burial that he deserves.
A nation that does not abondon its fallen affirms the principles it stands for
As Talik proved, a nation that does not abandon its dead affirms something unique about who it is and what it stands for. That principle can be costly, but its abandonment would have cost us far more.
With Gvili’s return, the natural question of “what happens now?” emerges. Not just in Gaza, but within Israel, too.
There will be those who argue that nothing meaningful has changed. Gaza’s future governance is still unresolved. Hamas has not been disarmed and is growing emboldened every day due to a lack of action.
Israel had previously delayed the full transition of Trump’s Gaza plan into Phase II because Hamas failed to return the bodies of all slain hostages.
Now, Phase II of the deal is intended to see to Hamas’s disarmament and its removal as Gaza’s governing authority, two of Israel’s central war goals. Whether these objectives will be realized in a manner that Jerusalem finds satisfactory remains uncertain.
Internally, the divisions, many of which predated October 7, will not disappear and will continue to manifest in the Knesset, in public discourse, and within families and communities.
The story of October 7 has not yet ended, and the full scale of trauma is yet to be revealed. Gaza border towns will still take years to rebuild, and trust in leadership, security, and institutions will take even longer to restore.
The return of Gvili does not erase the trauma, nor does it alleviate the grief of families who buried loved ones months ago, or the challenges of the Gaza captivity survivors and the struggles of those who welcomed them back home.
Something fundamental has shifted, allowing Israel to start thinking about turning a page. Now, after 844 days and for the first time since October 7, it is time to take a deep breath and acknowledge that an obligation has been met, and that the nation can begin, slowly and cautiously, to move forward with nobody left behind in Gaza.