That instinct – costly, unyielding and often misunderstood – is not a weakness. It is civilisational clarity – a reaffirmation of the values that distinguish the Jewish state from those who fight it
January 26, 2026 17:22
The recovery of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage, after 843 days, brought a moment of emotional release so overwhelming it defies description. For Israel – and for Jews far beyond its borders, including here in Britain – it was not merely the conclusion of a military operation, but the closing of a wound that had been open since October 7.
From the outset of the war, Israel’s commitment to bringing every hostage home, living or dead, was never just a slogan. It was part of the national creed. Even as the country fought on multiple fronts, absorbed heavy losses, endured diplomatic strain and accepted extraordinary risk, that obligation did not waver. That commitment was tested in the most brutal way in Gvili’s case. His body was seized, stripped of identity, and buried under a Muslim name in a Gaza cemetery.
The operation to recover his remains was aptly named Operation Braveheart. Gvili was a 24-year-old police officer who rushed south on the morning of the Hamas attack and was killed defending his comrades. The mission reflected both his heroic actions that day and Israel’s determination to bring him home. Soldiers involved were required to work through more than 350 bodies before identification was possible. When they finally found him, they broke down in tears. “Everyone here is crying,” one soldier said. “It’s impossible to explain.” Footage from the site showed troops spontaneously singing Ani Ma’amin, a declaration of faith historically associated with Jewish endurance in the darkest moments.
No modern state goes to such lengths to retrieve its fallen. Israel’s enemies have long regarded this devotion as a vulnerability to be exploited. Hamas has done so with particular cruelty – abducting even dead bodies, withholding information and dragging out negotiations. Gvili’s recovery was the result of Israeli intelligence and military action alone, not cooperation from his captors.
A cynic might argue that such devotion is strategically irrational. It is not. Israelis do not see one another merely as fellow citizens, but as members of an extended family, bound by shared fate and history. That bond is the source of Israel’s resilience, sustaining commitment, sacrifice and endurance when they are most tested.
That solidarity has been visible here in Britain as well, where the Jewish community worked relentlessly to keep international attention focused on the hostages. Vigils, advocacy and diplomacy were pursued not out of abstract politics, but from the conviction that no one should ever be left behind. That persistence mattered.
The exhumation of graves is traumatic. The IDF have offered psychological support to participating soldiers, and there is no denying the pain for Gazan families whose relatives were unearthed. War scars everyone it touches. But responsibility for this horror lies squarely with those who began this war and then turned human remains into bargaining chips, and burial itself into a weapon.
With the recovery of the last hostage, Israel has moved closer to fulfilling one of its stated war aims. The dismantling of Hamas’s military and governing capacity, and the removal of the terrorist threat from Gaza, remain incomplete. Israel still controls more than half the territory, and the next phase – including the reopening of the Rafah crossing to civilians – may now proceed. Hamas’s principal leverage is gone though. If the terrorists’ disarmament must now be imposed militarily, Israel will be freer to act.
Israel did not bring Ran Gvili home because it was easy, efficient or strategically convenient. It did so because leaving him behind was never an option. That instinct – costly, unyielding and often misunderstood – is not a weakness. It is civilisational clarity. And it is why this return was felt so deeply, in Israel and in Jewish communities far beyond it, as a reaffirmation of the values that distinguish Israel from those who fight it.
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