Father of Ran Gvili, one of two remaining hostages, to speak at possible final Tel Aviv rally

Hostages forum indicates Saturday event may be last as it narrows activities to support 2 families, says rallies don’t serve current situation of terror groups searching for bodies

By Jessica Steinberg

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and ToI Staff 29 November 2025, 12:02 am

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Itzik Gvili, the father of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, one of the two remaining slain hostages in Gaza, will speak Saturday night at what may be the final rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

Gvili and Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak are the two slain captives still held in Gaza, after the body of Kibbutz Be’eri’s Dror Or was released earlier this week.

Gvili was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza. Rinthalak was killed by Hamas terrorists the same day in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he was employed as an agricultural worker.

The other speakers at Saturday night’s Tel Aviv rally are Jon Polin, the father of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin; Ayelet Goldin, sister of slain soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin; Nira Sharabi, wife of Yossi Sharabi, a hostage slain in Hamas captivity; and Eyal Eshel, father of surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed on October 7 at the Nahal Oz base.

Alongside the Tel Aviv rally, additional protests will be held at Shaar HaNegev Junction and Carmei Gat, the Kiryat Gat neighborhood home to the evacuated Kibbutz Nir Oz community.

Jerusalem’s Safeguarding Our Shared Home protest group said that it will hold a farewell event on Saturday evening for the Hostages’ Tent at the corner of Aza Road and Balfour, erected since the start of the struggle for the release of the hostages.

The two slain hostages whose bodies were still held captive in Gaza as of November 24, 2025: Sudthisak Rinthalak (left) and Ran Gvili. (Collage by Times of Israel; Photos: Courtesy)

A spokesperson for the Hostages Families Forum said Friday that it hasn’t yet been announced whether there will be future rallies.

The forum said earlier this week that Saturday’s rally may be the last as the organization will greatly narrow its activities now that there are only two families left to support.

The Forum recommended stopping the rallies by the end of November, given the cost of around NIS 200,000 ($61,000) each week to erect a stage with video and sound systems, adding that the events don’t serve the current situation of terror groups apparently searching for and locating the remaining bodies in Gaza.

The Gvili family has said it understands the Forum’s decision.

Rinthalak’s family is located in Thailand, and while the Forum is in touch with the Thai Embassy, it has not been involved in rallies.

Security forces pay their respects as a convoy carrying the body of a hostage arrives at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, November 25, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Itzik Gvili said Thursday that he feared his son would never be returned.

“We pray, of course, that he will not be another Ron Arad or [Hadar] Goldin,” Itzik Gvili told Kan news. “That we don’t drag it out for many more years.”

Goldin, an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 and whose body was held in Gaza for over a decade, was returned to Israel this month. Arad, an Israeli Air Force navigator who was captured in Lebanon in 1988 after ejecting from his aircraft, has been missing ever since.

Gvili was declared dead by Israeli authorities in January 2024, based on various findings and intelligence information.

“As far as I am concerned, until Ran comes back, he is alive,” Gvili said. “I have nothing else to hope for. Perhaps there will be a miracle, and he will still be alive.”