Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon attends a ceremony at the IDF Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem on July 8, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90/ File)
Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who served as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, says that Hamas has “objective” difficulties in finding the body of Ran Gvili, the last deceased hostage in Gaza.
“Hamas has an objective difficulty” in finding the body, Alon tells Ynet in an interview. “It’s related to the chaos they faced immediately after October 7.”
“Nevertheless, we believe that it is possible to bring him back. There is a connection between the pressure applied to Hamas and the results, so we can’t give up,” Alon says in a wide-ranging interview, his first since he ended his more than two years in the role where he also also led the IDF’s intelligence-gathering effort on captives and missing persons.
Arabic media reported yesterday that Hamas and the Red Cross failed to find the remains of Gvili during recent searches in the eastern part of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.
A man holds a photo of Ran Gvili, who was killed while fighting Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and whose body has been held in Gaza since, during a rally calling for his return in Tel Aviv, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP/Oded Balilty)
When Hamas attacked, Gvili, a police master sergeant, was recovering at home from a broken collarbone. He quickly put on his uniform and joined the fight against the Hamas gunmen around Kibbutz Alumim near Gaza.
Gvili, who was 24 at the time, was badly wounded and Israeli authorities said he did not survive for long after being taken to Gaza.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
