Tel Aviv
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For over two years, it was one in all the strongest symbols at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square: a digital stopwatch, counting each minute, hour, and day since 251 Israelis have been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
On Tuesday, a day after the physique of the final Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili, was returned to Israel, the clock counting one in all the darkest chapters in the nation’s historical past was finally stopped.
After 843 days – greater than 20,250 hours, or 1,215,000 minutes – all Israeli hostages, dwelling and lifeless, have been again on dwelling soil.
“Rani is here with us. Not in the way we wished and prayed for, but he is here. Now we can finally pause this clock, and we can start to breathe, to heal, and to mourn,” mentioned Shira Gvili, Ran’s sister. “Just as we promised – until the very last hostage” Gvili mentioned, addressing the croud. “We made it happen, we brought Rani home.”
Gvili was joined by lots of of Israelis together with captivity survivors, households of hostages, and volunteers of the Hostages Families Forum who gathered in silence to observe the clock cease its counting. Only after a couple of minutes did they permit themselves to experience the second, unleashing a wave of applause, as if ready to make certain this chapter had actually come to an finish.
After greater than 843 days, the clock counting the painful wait for Israel’s hostages has finally stopped
“I’m still checking my pulse to see that it is real,” Dr. Hagai Levin, who led the discussion board’s well being group, advised NCS. As the chief physician, he mentioned, “it was my obligation to believe that it was possible and my duty to give the families hope.” The stopping of the clock “symbolizes the end of an era, a time of transition” Levin added. “We said all the time that without bringing back all of the hostages Israel cannot really recover. Now we are able to close the chapter of hostages and I hope rehabilitation begins.”
While Gvili’s return for burial gave his household the dignity and honor they deserved, it additionally supplied closure for the Israelis who demonstrated in the sq. week after week, supporting the hostages’ households of their battle.
Israelis flooded social media with footage of them eradicating their yellow pin, which had develop into the ubiquitous image for the hostages, worn on bracelets, t-shirts and extra. “October 7 is over,” one viral put up declared. “Now October 8 can finally begin.”
The milestone carries added significance, as for the first time since 2014 that Israel has no hostages held in Gaza. The Hostages Families Forum’s marketing campaign slogan was “until the last one,” they usually stood by their dedication.
Evan, who declined to present her final title, arrived at the sq. along with her canine wrapped in an Israeli flag. She mentioned the timing, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, can be vital, lending weight to a a lot older Jewish and Israeli vow: “Never again.”
“I couldn’t think of a better day for Rani to come back,” she mentioned.
Yet the finish of the lengthy battle to retrieve the hostages additionally refocuses consideration on those that didn’t come again alive. More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed in the Hamas-led terror assault on October 7, and at the least 46 out of the 251 hostages taken to Gaza died throughout their captivity.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the return of all the hostages as a unprecedented achievement. “We finished the mission,” he mentioned in a press convention on Tuesday night.
But survivors and bereaved households of the deceased hostages are extra essential of the authorities celebrations.
‘It is allowed to rejoice – because the people have brought them home. Just don’t overlook that it may have been, it ought to have been, and it have to be totally different subsequent time,” Gil Dickman, the cousin of Carmel Gat who was killed in a Gaza underground tunnel in August 2024, wrote on X.
Lee Seigel, brother of Keith Seigel, who was launched in a January 2025 ceasefire deal, advised NCS that he had firmly believed all of the hostages would return. “It took Aviva, my sister-in-law, 51 days to be brought back, and my brother Keith 484 days to be brought back and we knew we wouldn’t stop until Ran Gvili is back,” he advised NCS.
However, he added, “it’s all taken way too long, too much politics. It did not have to take so long, hostages did not have to be murdered, many soldiers and civilians in Gaza did not have to die for this. The war had to happen because Hamas invaded our country but it took too long to take this clock off. I’m overwhelmed with happiness, but I need tomorrow to be a much better day.”