For 843 days, Israel lived with an open wound.
It was that long that the body of Ran Gvili, the heroic policeman who was killed while valiantly fighting to save the lives of partygoers fleeing the Nova music festival from Hamas terrorists, was held in the Gaza Strip. It was for that many days that Israelis’ hearts remained pierced, unable to heal or move on.
Gvili’s return was not only the end of that painful saga, but a reminder of the courage Israelis demonstrated that day. Gvili was still recovering from a broken shoulder when he ran down south to fight the terrorists. He sacrificed himself to save others.
For Israel, this is not just an operational milestone. It is the end of something that actually began in 2014 when Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul’s bodies were taken by Hamas during Operation Protective Edge. For more than 11 years Israel’s military and intelligence agencies have operated with one overriding mission: to bring every hostage home from Gaza.
The return of Gvili underscores one of Israel’s most deeply held values: that no Israeli is ever abandoned. Not on the battlefield. Not in captivity. Not even in death. It is an ethos that goes beyond slogans and is an unwritten agreement between the state and its citizens, between the country and those who defend it.
There are painful exceptions. Ron Arad, the missing Air Force navigator, remains unaccounted for nearly four decades later. His fate still haunts the nation. But the past two years have shown that this commitment remains intact and - more importantly - that being Israeli is more than just holding a passport. It is about being part of a collective that accepts responsibility for one another, even when the price is high.
And it was. To retrieve its hostages, Israel had to agree to release thousands of Hamas prisoners. It pulled out of Gaza knowing that Hamas would remain there in control of half the territory and still in possession of its weapons. But it did so knowing that this was the painful price it had to pay to bring back its people. It stood by this promise.
With the hostage issue finally resolved, Israel has removed a central constraint that shaped nearly every military decision since October 7. Time and again during this war, operations were delayed or cancelled because of intelligence indicating that hostages might be nearby. Forces were held back even at the cost of momentum.
That restraint is now gone.
In a future confrontation with Hamas - if for example the group refuses to disarm - Israel will be able to operate with far greater freedom. There will no longer be the fear that a single strike could kill Israelis held underground. That matters. It changes calculations and restores operational flexibility that Israel lacked throughout much of this war.
At the same time, the return of Gvili clears the path toward Phase Two of the Trump 20-point Gaza plan. Even before the news of Gvili’s return, Washington had begun moving ahead - rolling out the “Board of Peace” last week alongside the technocratic Palestinian government and announcing plans to open the Rafah Crossing for the movement of people in and out of the Strip.
Israel initially resisted claiming that as long as an Israeli body was being held by Hamas, it would not agree. That argument is no longer relevant.
This creates space for cautious optimism, but it also introduces new risks.
The hardest obstacle remains unresolved: Hamas still controls roughly 50% of Gaza and has shown no intention of disarming. Its weapons remain intact and its ideology is unchanged. The absence of hostages may reduce Hamas’s leverage, but it will also likely increase the US pressure on Israel. More concessions - territorial, political, and security-related – will be asked of Israel and without hostages, Israel will find it hard to simply say no.
On the other hand, in a paradoxical way, Israel also gains something of an upper hand. For the first time since October 7, Israel is free of the operational constraints that shaped the war. It is free to make decisions based on simple security than also hostage blackmail.
That freedom does not guarantee success. But it restores agency.
The hostage crisis is over and while the pain that it inflicted will not simply disappear, with the last Israeli brought home, Israel closes a painful chapter and paves the way for a new reality which, if built correctly, has the potential to change the trajectory of the Middle East for generations to come.
Yaakov Katz is a co-founder of the MEAD policy forum, a senior fellow at JPPI, and a former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. His newest book is While Israel Slept
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