Ran Gvili: Final hostage ‘has been forgotten’ as Trump pushes ahead Gaza plan

“As father and mother, we call on anyone with a hand in this – don’t let it happen. Don’t leave our Rani behind and bury us together with him.”

Ran Gvili (Credit: X/social media)[Missing Credit]

Ran Gvili was a police officer and former IDF staff sergeant who, despite recovering at home from an injury on October 7, put on his uniform and went to fight the terrorist insurgents. While helping to save people at Kibbutz Alumim, he was killed by Hamas and his body was taken to Gaza where it remains over 800 days later, and weeks after the remains of the last slain hostages were repatriated.

During a rally this week in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Ran’s friends and family said the country will not be whole until he returns home.

“He always cared about connecting everyone, friends and weaker groups alike,” Ran’s father Itzik Gvili told a crowd. “In the army, school and in the police, he was like a magnet. Rani was everyone’s magnet. He connected people and loved everyone.”

Israelis light the 8th candle of Hannukah in Hostage Square, in Tel Aviv as they call for the return Ran Gvili's remains, December 21, 2025 (Credit: ILIA YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Trump has reportedly asked Benjamin Netanyahu to join the Gaza Board of Peace as a founding member, alongside 50 other world leaders including former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair and figures such as president of the World Bank Ajay Banga and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Netanyahu’s office criticised the inclusion of leaders from Turkey, Qatar and Egypt in the Gaza Executive Board, which will advise the Board of Peace, as “not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy”.

As well as ongoing rallies to call for the return of Ran, thousands of anti-government protesters are drawn weekly to Tel Aviv’s HaBima Square to demand an official independent inquiry into the security failures that led to October 7.