Nearly two years and three months have passed since Master Sgt. Ran Gvili went to fight Hamas terrorists in the communities near the Gaza border, was killed in battle near Kibbutz Alumim and abducted to Gaza. For his mother, Talik, time has stopped moving normally since then.
“We have been stuck for almost two years and three months. I can’t do anything. Life is on hold,” she said in pain in an interview Sunday with the Israeli news site ynet, after returning from the United States, where she and her family met with President Donald Trump.
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Talik Gvili with a shield memorializing her son, after the meeting with Trump last week
(Photo: Hostages families forum)
Gvili speaks quietly and precisely, but every sentence carries the weight of a mother trying to hold together an impossible reality. Last week she returned from a trip to the United States as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s diplomatic visit to the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where she met senior members of the Trump administration.
“They told us very unequivocally that they will bring Rani back, that they are working on it, that everyone is all-in on the situation,” she said. According to Gvili, President Trump, whom she met, as well as envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, expressed their commitment to returning her son. “We heard it from them very clearly,” she said. “It didn’t feel like they would disappoint us. I am very sharp. I saw real concern in their eyes. I know they are making every effort.”
At the same time, Gvili voiced unease about one point that troubles her: claims by terror groups in the Gaza Strip that they do not know her son’s whereabouts. “The only problem is that they (the Americans) really believe Hamas. That ‘Hamas doesn’t know where Rani is.’ That after everything that happened, Islamic Jihad said it released all its prisoners,” she said. “This is not a cat that was thrown in the trash. This is a grown man who fought on the battlefield, in uniform. I don’t think this is some small toy that gets lost.”
Since October 7, Gvili has been living her life “on automatic,” as she put it. “Someone has to be last. I don’t know why it’s us, but apparently we have a mission. Maybe we’ll understand it in the future. Maybe it’s a mission of unity,” she said. “Unity is a word that’s already worn out. People use it as a slogan. I do think we are united. But we think differently and don’t know how to manage our disagreements properly.”
Despite concerns that tensions in Israeli society could push her son’s return from captivity further away, Gvili said her family has felt strong support and an embrace from many Israelis. “At the rally we held in Meitar, more than 1,000 people came yesterday, from all sides. You see it. You feel it,” she said.
“Every day I wake up to a struggle and to hope. To pressure. All of it together,” she continued. “It could be any minute, any day, any hour. And it’s been going on for a long time. I can’t plan anything in my life. My job is to bring Rani back.”
Gvili also spoke about the wedding of her son Omri, Ran’s older brother. “My son Omri got married. He can’t go on a honeymoon. He can’t free himself for anything. Life is on hold. The absence of Rani is enormous. I’m used to someone who is very present in my life. And suddenly they stole him from me. The word ‘missing’ is an understatement.”