Omri Gvili refuses to call his brother, Ran Gvili —who was taken hostage in Gaza—a “fallen soldier.”
“Even if there’s a 0.0000000001% chance that Ran is alive,” he says, “I’m placing all my hope on that tiny chance.”
Ran is one of the last three hostages still being held by Hamas. It has been a week since any bodies of hostages have been returned to Israel.
“The past month,” Omri says, “has been one of the hardest I’ve known. Not that the last two years were calm, but it’s become more intense. Your pulse increases by the second. Every second you get some update, you can’t sleep all night. A whole month of devastation.”
On October 16 Omri got married, which only added to the emotional storm. “Baruch Hashem (Thank God), the wedding was insane, full of joy,” he says. “We never forgot Ran for a second. We released yellow balloons, there was his photo at the entrance. Ran is a hero in every fiber of his being. Not just in battle, but in his love for people, his help to others. He’s my role model. When I talk about him my chest swells with pride. I miss him every waking second.”
The special bond between the brothers with a three years’ age difference grew stronger as they matured. “Ran is the younger one, but we were like twins. Our love is so enormous I have no words. I always felt him and he felt me. Once when he was in the army I felt something was wrong all day. At night I called Mom and she told me Ran had a head injury,” Omri describes.
Ran was also present in Omri’s decision to marry. “I asked myself what he’d tell me to do,” Omri recounts. “And I knew he’d say: ‘Go ahead, get married.’ If he comes home and sees I haven’t grown, he’ll be angry. He arranged the proposal for me. He and Sharon, my wife, were best friends. She used to call him asking when he was coming home and what to cook him. Ran’s heart is bigger than his muscles, and he has muscles. I wish to be half of what he is.”
Amid the pain and aching longing, Omri strives to carry on with life because that’s what Ran would want.
“I manage to hold myself up from the strength he gives me. From my wife, from family. It’s so Ran to go last, to make sure everyone else comes back first. That’s his character. I dreamed he’d come saying he’d been out of Gaza to rest. I watched him sleeping then he woke and said: ‘Okay, I'm going back to Gaza.’ He told me he couldn’t stay here while they’re there. ‘When they come back, I’ll come.’ That’s Ran.”