In a poignant conclusion to a distressing chapter, Israel has confirmed the recovery of Ran Gvili’s remains, the last hostage in Gaza, on Monday. This development concludes a two-and-a-half-year ordeal that has gripped the nation and delayed the implementation of a ceasefire with Hamas.

The discovery of the 24-year-old police officer’s body has stirred deep emotions across Israel. Gvili was tragically killed during the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023, an event that ignited the Gaza conflict. This news brings a bittersweet closure, offering a glimmer of hope that the stalled ceasefire might now advance into its next phase.

For Gvili’s family and friends, the end of this long and painful search allows them to finally begin the mourning process. Reflecting on the ordeal, his sister, Shira Gvili, shared with The Associated Press in early December how they longed for relief similar to that experienced by other families of returned hostages. “This is why it’s so important,” she expressed. “We want to move on with our lives and just remember Rani.”

The nation has closely followed Gvili’s story, knowing well his bravery. Despite recovering from a broken shoulder on the day of the attack, he hurried to assist fellow officers. Tragically, he was killed while defending a kibbutz from militants. His body was subsequently taken to Gaza, and it wasn’t until four months later that the military confirmed his passing.

Gvili leaves behind a grieving family—his parents, sister, and brother—as they, along with a country, remember his courage and sacrifice.

He is survived by his parents, a sister, and a brother.

“The first to go, the last to leave,” his mother, Talik Gvili, wrote on Facebook after receiving the news Monday. “Our hero.”

The last hostage

Several Israeli leaders posted videos of themselves removing a pin of a yellow ribbon Monday, a sign that the fight to return the hostages was over.

“The entire people of Israel are moved to tears,” President Isaac Herzog wrote on X. “This was an operation of immeasurable importance in fulfilling the sacred obligation to redeem captives.”

He noted it was the first time since 2014 that Israel did not have any hostages held in Gaza. Two soldiers were killed and their bodies taken to Gaza that year. Israel’s military retrieved one of the bodies, and the second was released by Hamas in November.

As part of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10, Hamas released 20 living hostages and, over the course of two months, the bodies of 27 of 28 deceased hostages, but said they could not locate Gvili’s body.

Many in Israel worried that his remains would never be recovered.

Gvili was one of 251 people, mostly civilians, who were abducted in the Oct. 7 attack, when Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people. In the ensuing war in Gaza, some 71,660 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

On Sunday, Hamas said it had exhausted all efforts to locate Gvili and had turned over information about the body’s potential location to Israel. It said troops were searching one of the areas it specified in northern Gaza.

After a major operation to exhume dozens of bodies from a cemetery there, Israel’s military said Gvili’s remains were identified by his teeth.

Footage on Israeli media showed dozens of soldiers, arms wrapped around each other, singing religious songs as his body was identified and exhumed.

Killed in battle

On the morning of the Oct. 7 attack, Gvili was at home, Shira Gvili said. He had been on medical leave from his elite police unit. Still, when he heard that gunmen were attacking panicked partygoers at the Nova Music Festival, he headed for the venue, along with others from his unit.

Nova later became the site of the largest civilian massacre in Israeli history. The militants killed at least 364 people and took more than 40 hostage.

Gvili and the other officers never made it there, his sister said. Instead, they encountered the militants at Kibbutz Alumim.

“He radioed his team to warn that more vehicles carrying terrorists were approaching,” his mother said in an interview with Ynet. “He opened fire, and they came at him. He fought them alone, injured in both his leg and arm, and he took down those monsters.”

‘The Shield of Alumim’

At the entrance to Kibbutz Alumim, one of the many border villages militants attacked on Oct. 7, there is a sign emblazoned with a photo of Gvili smiling in his uniform, his name beneath it.

“He fought a heroic battle, saving the lives of the kibbutz members,” the sign says. “Since then he has been known as ‘Rani, the Shield of Alumim.’”

Unlike residents of other Israeli kibbutzim targeted that day, those of Alumim survived. They credit that to men like Gvili, who joined emergency response team members, soldiers and police officers who fended off waves of militants.

Migrant workers on the kibbutz, however, met a different fate. Left exposed in agricultural areas outside the kibbutz’s defensive perimeter, 22 foreign nationals were killed, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Last step in ceasefire’s first phase

The return of Gvili’s remains marks what should be the completion of the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to reopen the Rafah crossing, which runs between Gaza and Egypt and that Palestinians see as their lifeline to the world. The crossing has been largely closed since May 2024.

The next steps of the ceasefire agreement, which American envoys have been pushing for the past week, will be more complicated. Key elements include deploying an international force to secure Gaza, disarming Hamas and forming a temporary Palestinian government to run day-to-day affairs under the supervision of an international board led by Trump.

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.