Remains of Ran Gvili, the Last hostage in Gaza, identified and returned to Israel

The remains of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza, were successfully recovered and identified by the National Forensics Institute, rabbinic advisors, the Israel police, and IDF forces after covert operations in northern Gaza on Sunday and Monday.

There were two to three locations that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) suspected Gvili’s remains were located, but recent intelligence surfaced that Gvili’s remains were buried in a Muslim cemetery in the Shejaiay-Darah Tuffa area of northern Gaza, along the Yellow Line, which separates IDF activities from Hamas activities. 

The IDF said that the intelligence it obtained about Gvili’s remains did not come directly from Hamas, but at the same time, Hamas and Qatari mediators were consulted about this intelligence and had believed it could be correct. IDF forces have had pieces of information about this location for a long time, but only the additional information that was obtained over Shabbat (the Sabbath) paved the way for a decision to conduct an operation.

If the IDF was unsuccessful in locating his remains in the cemetery, it was ready to explore alternatives. Along with a large number of mandatory service and reserve troops, and engineering unit personnel, the IDF team assisting has also included rabbinic advisors and a dentist to try to quickly identify and confirm his remains. If fingerprints didn’t work, then identification through dental records or DNA tests would be used next. 

The IDF checked around 250 Palestinian bodies before finding Gvili, and the military is returning all of the Palestinian bodies, which were checked carefully, in order to complete the operation. IDF sources implied that Palestinian Islamic Jihad might have buried Gvili in the cemetery after misidentifying him as a Palestinian. 

Upon completion of successful identification, all parties involved immediately notified the Gvili family. IDF Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was seen along with IDF soldiers saluting the remains and singing the HaTikvah, Israel’s national anthem. 

One of the most prominent people who was part of the operation was Israeli singer and “Fauda” star Idan Amedi, who was one of the first famous Israelis to enlist after October 7 and previously had been seriously injured while fighting in a counterterrorism operation against Hamas. He recently re-enlisted out of solidarity with wounded soldiers and support for Israel, though he kept this decision private but shared it in a social media post later on. Due to his injuries and long rehabilitation, Amedi did not return for Season 5 of the hit series Fauda, in which he portrayed Sagi Tzur.

Gvili’s parents, Talik and Itzik, accompanied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his recent U.S. trip to Florida, where the couple met with U.S. President Trump to amplify the need to bring his body home to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it an “extraordinary achievement for the State of Israel.”

(Listen to the full interview with Itzik Gvili: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5CkN4b9YPjFdFsHGUKpePt?si=TH04jqa4Rvy2liXW0Xp6Og)

“We promised – and I personally promised — to bring everyone back. We have brought everyone back – every last one of them,” he added. 

Ran Gvili was murdered on October 7, 2023, near Kibbutz Alumim. Despite being on medical leave and recovering from surgery, he put on his uniform and went to fight Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel that dark Shabbat morning. It was not confirmed until January 31, 2024, that Gvili had been murdered, with his body being held in Gaza. Gvili served in the elite Yasam (police special patrol) unit of the Israel Police. He is credited with saving lives at the Nova music festival and defending Kibbutz Alumim. 

Gvili’s return marks the end of the Gaza hostage ordeal, returning all live and deceased hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023. For the first time since 2014, when the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, along with Avera Mengistu, were abducted, no Israeli hostages remain in Gaza. 

The Israel Daily News team interviewed Ran Gvili’s parents at the funeral of Dror Or, the third to last hostage body brought home. His parents said mid way through the war, they started to believe Ran would be the last body in Gaza. They said he was always the first in and last out and that he always took his work seriously as a protector of his people.