Eulogizing last returned hostage Ran Gvili, Herzog says nation can now ‘slowly begin’ to heal

President Isaac Herzog says Israel can “slowly begin” healing as a nation following the aftermath of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, speaking at the funeral of fallen police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the final hostage to return from Gaza.

“Ran, the hero and the beloved, ‘the last hostage,’ is finally brought to eternal rest, in the soil of home,” Herzog says, telling the Gvili family that “an entire nation accompanied you and all the families of the hostages for hundreds upon hundreds of days.”

Gvili’s return “is also a momentous moment for an entire nation,” he continues, saying that “from within the sanctity of this moment, the shattered fragments of our hearts can slowly begin to gather toward healing and repair, which are so desperately needed by us as a people.”

“An entire nation looks upon you today… and knows: through your path, and through Ran’s path, we must rise from this terrible pain,” Herzog tells the Gvili family, saying that the nation must now “rise to the next chapter of our existence as a people. Rise strong, confident in our way; rise hand in hand… believing in our State of Israel — Jewish and democratic — and guarding it with utmost devotion, as Ran guarded it.”

As he has done when eulogizing other returned slain hostages, Herzog apologizes to the bereaved family on behalf of the state for the loss and delayed repatriation of their loved ones: “At this moment I ask of you, as president of Israel, in the name of the State of Israel: forgiveness. Forgiveness that we were not there for him. Forgiveness that together with so many families you were forced to wait for the return of your beloved for so many days — so agonizing,” he says.

He also indirectly repeats his call for a thorough commission of inquiry into the events that led to October 7, saying that in light of Ran and other fallen heroes during the war, “we are obligated: to look directly at the site of the wound; to investigate thoroughly, to clarify in depth, to pursue the truth relentlessly, to heal and to recover.”

“Thus, only thus, and only together, to build here a shared Israeli tomorrow. For your sake, dear and beloved Ran, and for ours,” the president says.