Ex-IDF point man on hostages says Hamas has ‘objective’ difficulties in finding body of last slain hostage

9 December 2025, 8:02 am

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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.