Israel buries last captive recovered from Gaza, ending a painful chapter

By Dedi Hayun

MEITAR, Israel, Jan 28 (Reuters) – The last Israeli captive recovered from Gaza was buried on Wednesday at a funeral attended by hundreds of mourners which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ended a “painful” chapter in Israel’s history.

Ran Gvili, an off-duty police officer, was killed fighting Hamas militants who attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. His remains were taken back to the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, Israeli officials say.

Of the about 250 people abducted that day, Gvili was the last to be released either dead or alive, and he was buried in his hometown of Meitar in southern Israel.

His casket was driven to the funeral in a procession beginning in Camp Shura, a facility where Israel identified victims of the October 2023 attack. Police and civilians carrying Israeli flags lined parts of the route.

“The burial of Ran Gvili brings an end to the painful reality of the existence of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, all of them, living and fallen,” Netanyahu said in a eulogy at the funeral.

President Isaac Herzog also delivered a eulogy at the funeral. He said the entire nation mourned Gvili, who was 24 when he died, and that “the shattered fragments of our hearts can slowly begin to gather toward healing and repair.”

MOMENT OF NATIONAL HEALING

Gvili was one of about 1,200 people killed in the attack, which set off the war in Gaza, in which Palestinian health authorities say Israel has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians.

Many of the hostages were released during two short ceasefires, but dozens died in captivity. Under the terms of an October deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Hamas and other groups agreed to return the remaining hostages, alive or dead, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The return of the last hostage and his burial marks a moment of national healing for Israelis. The Hamas attack, the bloodiest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, was widely seen as the most traumatic event in the country’s history.

It also completes a core aspect of the initial phase of Trump’s plan to end the war. The second stage, which Washington announced had started earlier this month, includes the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah border with Egypt.

Tzvika Mor, whose son Eitan Mor was taken hostage but was released last October, was among the crowds that watched the funeral procession pass.

“So we’re here to say goodbye and to stand with the Gvili family,” he said, hailing Gvili as a hero.

Harel Plachinsky, Gvili’s aunt, also saw the return of her nephew’s remains and burial as a moment of closure.

“This is some kind of ending the war…and I think that the seventh of October is ending today,” she said.

(Reporting by Dedi Hayun and Omri Taasan, Editing by Rami Ayyub and Timothy Heritage)