(JNS) “It’s so characteristic of him—staying until the end, making sure everyone else was released before him, and turning off the light on his way out,” Shira Gvili, sister of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, told JNS on Thursday.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, 24, a member of the Yasam police counter-terror unit, was at home recovering from a motorbike accident. Awakened by rocket sirens that morning, he checked his phone and saw messages from his unit indicating they were deploying everyone to the Gaza envelope to respond to a terrorist infiltration.

“Rani didn’t think twice. He put on his uniform, took his weapon and told my parents he was going out. They argued with him, but Rani lifted his arm to show them the injury didn’t stop him from moving. You couldn’t convince him otherwise. He was focused on his mission to save as many people as possible that morning,” Shira told JNS.

Gvili joined up with his unit, met his team and headed toward the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. Along the way, the team stopped at a junction where they encountered people fleeing the festival, whom Gvili helped rescue.

A team fighting terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim urgently needed backup. Gvili got into a car with an Bedouin officer, and together they drove to the kibbutz. As the officer drove, Gvili fired at terrorists, wounding several, until the car broke down and the two were forced to get out and run. There, they became separated.

“Rani was alone. He told his unit he was wounded and needed evacuation. He continued fighting dozens of terrorists until he ran out of ammunition, and then he was kidnapped to Gaza. Since then, we have no information. We don’t know where he is, whether he’s alive, or how serious his injuries are. We live in uncertainty,” said Shira.

Gvili was declared dead in absentia on Jan. 31, 2024.

The past two years, Shira said, have been incredibly difficult for the family.

“You can see it in the way we behave. It’s very hard for us to accept that Rani may not be alive. We don’t know. We pray constantly. We lost what was most precious to us. Rani is the heart of our family—sensitive, intelligent, a lover of music and of people. He had a different kind of consciousness about the world,” she said.

The middle child of three, Gvili has become a mission for the family, Shira told JNS, who are determined to make sure everyone knows his story—the wounded police officer who went out on Oct. 7 to save lives.

“It’s very important for us to spread this message and bring Rani’s worldview to life. Rani believed everything is a matter of perspective and that every problem comes with a solution. It’s important that all Israelis, all Jews and the world know who Rani was, because he is a special soul,” she said.

“As a hero, he deserves a place where people can honor him. He deserves to be buried, to be remembered and to be home. It’s a cry we have cried for more than two years,” she added.

Talik and Itzik Gvili met US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, Nov. 28, 2025. The Gvilis’ son Ran was taken captive by terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and is the last Israeli hostage being held in Gaza. Credit: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

On Friday, Ran’s parents Talik and Itzik Gvili met US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

“I met Itzik & Talik Gvili—whose heroic son Ran Gvili died battling Hamas terrorists on Oct 7 & remains one of only 2 slain hostages still held in Gaza. Also present was Ruby Chen, a man I greatly admire and whose relentless drive to bring home his murdered son – US citizen Itay Chen – culminated in Itay’s return to Israel earlier this month,” Ambassador Huckabee’s post read on X.

“I reaffirmed our commitment to the immediate and unconditional return of Ran and Sudthisak Rinthalak, the last two hostages in Gaza’s dungeons,” it added.

As the last Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, Gvili’s release—along with that of agricultural Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43—is highly anticipated across Israel as the symbolic end of the long hostage crisis.

“It will be intense to a level the country hasn’t experienced yet, and we are waiting to experience it. At the same time, we are afraid because of the uncertainty. We will face the new struggle of caring for injuries that have been bleeding for more than two years,” she said.

Nearly everything reminds her of her brother, because he was so many things, said Shira.

“When I hear a guitar or any instrument, I remember Ran, the music he played, his songs, his joy, our dances. When I see a motorbike, I’m heartbroken because it reminds me of the one thing that could have protected him and kept him home. Every comfort food, every jeep on the road, every policeman I see reminds me of him,” she said.

Shira called on Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora to stay united and love and support one another in the face of a shared threat from a common enemy.

“We are a great people. Thank you for all the support—it’s not something we take for granted. We must bring Ran and Sudthisak back,” she said.

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