MEITAR, southern Israel — Ran Gvili, 24,  the final hostage returned from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, was laid to rest in his hometown of Meitar on Wednesday, eulogized by family members who spoke of their pride, defiance and sorrow after a more than two-year struggle to bring back the remains of the police special forces officer killed in battle on October 7.

Hundreds of Israelis lined the roads with flags as they paid tribute to Gvili, whose body was found by IDF soldiers in a Gaza on Monday. The funeral was notable for being the first hostage burial attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a host of other senior officials, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Knesset speaker Amir Ohana and Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef.

Gvili’s mother Talik eulogized her son, speaking of her pride and imagining him sitting in heaven, a glass of arak in his hand, part of a pantheon of fallen Israeli heroes, listening to the eulogies.

“Rani and the other heroes give us the strength,” said Gvili. “You’re so with me, Rani, I’m Talik Gvili, a proud, proud mother.”

She also issued a defiant warning to Israel’s enemies like Hamas who seek to destroy the Jewish state.

“You, our enemies, tried to scare us, look what’s left of you, and you’ll see what will be left of you,” she said.

Gvili, a member of the elite police Yasam unit, was awaiting surgery for a broken shoulder on October 7, 2023, when he began hearing about the Hamas invasion, a 50-minute drive from his family home in Meitar.

He threw on his uniform, hopped on one of his motorcycles, and sped to Kibbutz Alumim, where he battled Hamas terrorists for hours before he was killed.

Gvili had been the last of 251 people kidnapped on October 7 to remain captive, following the return of the rest of the hostages, living and dead, under the current ceasefire. For more than 50 days, he was the only hostage still held in Gaza, amid Hamas’s insistence that it had been unable to locate him, leaving his family and country fearful he might never be recovered.

Gvili’s father, Itzik, spoke of the emotions of how it........

© The Times of Israel