'Pride of the entire nation': Israel holds funeral for last Gaza hostage
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MEITAR, Israel: Hundreds of tearful mourners packed a stadium in southern Israel on Wednesday (Jan 28) for the funeral of Ran Gvili, the last Gaza hostage whose burial marks the end of a painful national saga triggered by Hamas's 2023 attack.
Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of Gvili, who was killed in action and whose body Palestinian militants took into Gaza during their Oct 7 attack, which triggered a devastating two-year war.
A large banner bearing the portrait of Gvili hung in a stadium in the town of Meitar, the 24-year-old police officer's hometown and where he will be laid to rest.
In front of the sombre crowd, which included tearful family members, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, Gvili's coffin lay draped in an Israeli flag.
"I hoped you would come back on your own two feet, and that gave me strength," said his mother Talik Gvili, who described her son as "the first to leave, last to return."
"For two years and four months, we talked about you constantly, and you became everyone's child," she added.
"Rani, you are with me all the time."
Herzog hailed the return of his remains but said he could only regret not having known Gvili while he was alive.
"Gvili family, I ask you, as president, for forgiveness that we were not there for him ... an entire nation mourns with you today," he said during the ceremony.
An officer in the elite Yassam unit, Gvili was on medical leave ahead of shoulder surgery when Hamas launched its deadly attack in southern Israel, but grabbed his gun and raced towards the area.
Of the 251 hostages taken by militants on that day, Gvili's were the last remains held in the Palestinian territory.
"Know this, you cowards: Rani and the martyrs give us the strength to erase you from the world, to erase evil, to wipe out the seed of Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad," Talik Gvili told the crowd of mourners, referring to the two Palestinian militant groups.
"HERO ISRAEL"
During a speech at the funeral ceremony, Netanyahu described Gvili as a "hero of Israel" and announced the creation of a new village in his honour.
He also warned Israel's enemies that they would pay a heavy price of they attack Israel.
"We are determined to complete our missions: to disarm Hamas and demilitarise Gaza, and we will succeed. Let our enemies know that anyone who raises a hand against Israel will pay an exorbitant price," he said.
The return of the hostages held in Gaza dragged on over the course of the war between Israel and Hamas in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily.
The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on Oct 10.
The first phase of the deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili's family had opposed moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.
Nicknamed the "Defender of Alumim" by his family and the kibbutz of that name, Gvili was killed in combat during the October attack.
Earlier, a hush had fallen over the stadium as a large screen broadcast the arrival of the coffin carrying his body.
As some in the crowd began to cry, only muffled sobs broke the silence.
Hundreds of onlookers clutching Israeli flags had lined the roads as a convoy carrying Gvili's body headed from the military base Camp Shura in central Israel towards Meitar under an overcast sky.
"SUFFERING IS IMMMENSE"
"Today, my brother, this hero, has come home... you are the pride of the entire nation," said Gvili's brother, Omri Gvili, during the ceremony.
"Our suffering is immense, but the pride we feel for you is even greater," he added.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel had "fully completed the sacred mission of returning all of our hostages".
"Many generations will draw inspiration from Ran Gvili, a hero of Israel, and from all our other heroes... This is the generation of heroism. This is the generation of victory," he said at a televised press conference.
Hundreds gathered at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square late on Tuesday as a clock counting the time hostages had been held in Gaza finally stopped.
Herzog said on Monday it was the first time since 2014 that no Israeli citizens were held hostage in Gaza.
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