Family of Ran Gvili says pressure should be on Hamas to return body, not Israel to open Rafah Crossing

The family of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili expresses concern that pressure is being directed at Israel to move forward on easing life in Gaza, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body, in response to US pressure on Jerusalem to open the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

“President [Donald] Trump himself said this week in Davos that Hamas knows where our son is. We wonder why the pressure is being directed at the wrong place. The pressure should not be on the Israeli government to continue to fulfill its part of the agreement while Hamas is deceiving the entire world and refusing to return the last kidnapped person, in accordance with the agreement it signed,” the family says in a statement.

The statement comes as US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are visiting Israel in order to request that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu open the Rafah Border Crossing, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The Gvili family calls on Netanyahu to tell the US envoys that efforts should be made to return Ran if they want to move forward with regional peace and the reconstruction of Gaza.

While Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war envisioned the reopening of Rafah at the start of the ceasefire that was reached in October, Israel has sought to limit its use to the exit of Gazans while insisting on the return of the final hostage and the disarmament of Hamas before making the gate fully operational.

Recognizing that Israel wasn’t going to budge on the issue, Gaza mediators decided to go ahead and announce Rafah’s reopening this week during the signing ceremony for the Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel yesterday.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.