At Tel Aviv event, Ran Gvili’s father says his slain hostage son took care of the country, ‘now the country needs to save him’

At a Friday afternoon gathering in Hostages Square for the final deceased Gaza hostage, Ran Gvili, his father, Itzik Gvili, thanks the hundreds of people present.

Gvili, whose son was a police master sergeant, acknowledges the police officers in the crowd as he talks about Ran, who went to fight back the terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on October 7 with a broken shoulder.

“His shoulder was broken and he didn’t think twice about fighting,” says Gvili. “Just as he went to take care of the country, now the country needs to save him.”

Gvili says that his family is not political, and Ran, whom his family refers to as Rani, was not either. “Everyone is equal to us,” he says. “Believe what you want, we love you all.”

Bereaved father Ruby Chen, the father of fallen soldier Itay Chen, also speaks at the Hostages Square gathering.

“Day 798, and on Sunday it will be day 800,” says Chen. “I remember day 100, with the 24-hour rally, and we said we wouldn’t reach day 200 — certainly not beyond that.”

Chen calls for an independent, apolitical commission of inquiry and says that “everyone wants” a conscription law that encompasses “everyone under the stretcher, sharing the burden.”

“I call on our politicians to remember how everyone fought together on 7/10, just as the Hasmoneans did then,” says Chen, referring to the story of the upcoming Hanukkah holiday.

Released hostage Eitan Horn is also present at the gathering, as is Dani Miran, the father of released hostage Omri Miran.

Other rallies will be held on Saturday evening in Meitar, the Gvilis’ hometown, in Shaar Hanegev in the south, and in Carmei Gat, with the Kibbutz Nir Oz community.