“The first to go out, the last to return,” his mother, Talik, wrote Monday after the IDF announced the success of Operation Brave Heart to locate the combat fighter in eastern Gaza City. “Our hero.”
In a special statement to the media outside the family home in the southern town of Meitar, she added: “We are truly proud to reach this moment. The pride is far stronger than the sorrow.”
His sister, Shira, thanked the people of Israel, former hostages and the families of hostages. “You are our anchor in this insane situation. You are with us for life and show how strong a people we are,” she said.
After Gvili became the last remaining hostage, fears grew that his fate would never be known and that he would remain in Gaza for many years. Still, Israel insisted on bringing him home and made the transition to Phase Two of President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza conditional on his return.
The Americans pressed to move forward anyway and led Israel to agree that opening the Rafah crossing for the movement of people — the starting signal for Phase Two of Trump’s plan — would proceed even if Gvili was not found. In the end, he was located by the IDF in Operation Brave Heart, rendering the dispute moot.
Gvili’s family — his parents, Talik and Itzik, and his siblings, Omri and Shira — worked tirelessly for his return, with even greater intensity after he remained the last captive in Gaza. They met last month with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but they were not alone. Calls for Gvili’s return were heard across the country, including in Meitar; at Kibbutz Alumim near the Gaza border, where Gvili was killed after saving dozens of revelers from the Nova music festival, earning him the nickname “Rani, Protector of Alumim”; within the police, security forces and among his friends; and among former hostages and their families, who also fought for the return of their loved ones throughout the long war.
Hamas violated the agreement — but the family did not give up
Although Hamas violated its part of the deal led by Trump by not returning all the hostages at once, both the living and the dead, the Gvili family maintained an optimistic and hopeful tone, expressing full faith that Ran would ultimately be brought home. In an interview with ynet about two weeks ago, Omri said: “We long for the moment he returns, God willing, and we must not stop until it happens. We keep searching and keep pressing, and of course we never give up for a moment.”
Asked whether he feared his brother would not be found, Omri replied: “Fear is always there, but we trust Trump and the government and the state and all the relevant bodies, because in the end I know and believe their interest in bringing him home is far greater than any other interest. I believe they know exactly what they are doing and what they need to do. I trust them.”
Calls for Gvili’s return were also voiced by former hostages and their families. At a rally in Meitar on Saturday, Eitan Horn said: “I admire Ran. I admire a man who, on October 7, while wounded, chose to put on a vest, take a weapon and go out to defend his home, his community, his country. Without hesitation. Without calculating risks. Without asking who stood next to him or what their views were — secular or ultra-Orthodox, right or left. Ran made no distinctions. He acted with courage, heroism and self-sacrifice, and gave his life for all of us. I cannot truly recover until Ran is home. The struggle to bring him back is an inseparable part of my personal recovery, and part of our recovery as a society and as a people.”
Former hostage Segev Kalfon said the day before, at a Friday evening gathering in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv: “Ran knew he was risking his life for others and for me as well. I will be grateful forever. He should have returned long ago. Ran, like me, was not supposed to be kidnapped at all, and certainly not to be held 738 days like me, and he was supposed to come back with me, in the same deal.”
The chief of staff salutes the coffin of the late Ran Gvili
(Photo: IDF)
That same Friday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met Gvili’s parents outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. He stopped his car and told them the army was committed to bringing their son home. According to the IDF, Zamir stressed that this was a mission at the forefront of the hearts and minds of all IDF soldiers, and that the military and Southern Command were making every effort to return him.
That commitment was fulfilled Monday, when Gvili was located at the conclusion of a complex operation in which the bodies of about 250 Palestinians were examined and numerous forces took part, including dentists involved in the identification process. At a ceremony in Gaza in Gvili’s honor, Zamir saluted him and recited the Shehecheyanu blessing, traditionally said on reaching a significant moment.
Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Danny Levy told Ran’s father, Itzik, that his son was returning “as he went out.” “I just want to tell you that he was found whole, with his uniform and everything on him,” Levy said. “You are receiving the boy as he went out, even with a tear in his pants. With his uniform, with everything. I don’t know if that brings comfort, but it’s important you know. I assume this is a moment when everything crashes down at once, but just know your son is whole, with his uniform. He was a hero of the Israel Police.”
Later, as his son’s coffin was escorted by a special police convoy from the Gaza border area to the family home in Meitar, Itzik Gvili said: “I received Rani. I hugged him. You should see the strength of the army, the police, his friends who are accompanying him right now. If you asked Rani how he would want to go, this is his way. This is the honor. He saved us, the people of Israel and Kibbutz Alumim. He unites the people of Israel. Rani always loved bringing people together, and he united the country. We love everyone. Am Yisrael Chai.” The father kissed his son’s coffin, which was draped in the Israeli flag.
Gvili served as a fighter in Negev Border Police in the Southern District. On October 7, he went out to fight while wounded, with a broken shoulder, after a motorcycle accident and ahead of a planned surgery. He managed to save the lives of dozens of participants at the Nova festival near Re’im before he was killed and his body abducted near Kibbutz Alumim.