Nir Oz community holds its final hostage rally, after 120 weekly protests

The Kibbutz Nir Oz community in Karmei Gat, where kibbutz members have been living for the last two years since October 7 — when one in four Nir Oz members was killed or abducted — holds its final Saturday night rally after the burial of Ran Gvili, the fallen police officer who was the remaining hostage in Gaza.

The Nir Oz community held Saturday night rallies for 120 weeks, says Renana Gome, whose two teenage sons were taken captive and released 52 days later, in November 2023. The father of her children, Yair Yaakov, was killed and his body taken captive and then released.

Gome takes note of the presence of Maj. Ben. (Res.) Nitzan Alon, who served as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations, and is present at the rally.

Other speakers include David Cunio and Ariel Cunio, two brothers from Nir Oz, who were released on October 13, 2025. Ariel Cunio’s girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud, was released from captivity in January 2025, and David Cunio’s wife and daughters, Sharon Aloni Cunio, Emma and Yuli Cunio, were released in November 2023.

Ariel Cunio thanks all those who rallied and protested, including the Nir Oz community.

“You are our home even when there is no longer a physical home.”

Only six homes were left standing in the kibbutz after the devastation of the October 7 Hamas attack. Cunio says that his home with Yehoud is gone, and that they are facing a long road of recovery.

“A path of relearning how to live without fear, how to sleep peacefully, how to build a future after the world has collapsed and the ground has been pulled out from beneath us.

Cunio adds that it seems to him that all of Israel is standing at the beginning of a process of recovery.

“And just as we will need to rebuild our home, the State of Israel also needs to be rebuilt, not only physically, but with mutual responsibility, compassion and the courage to choose together a path of repair,” he says.

His brother, David Cunio, thanks the army, the security forces and “our amazing nation,” says the elder Cunio brother. “We knew from the darkness that you were out there and it helped us hold on. We’ll never have enough words to thank you, you didn’t give up on us for a moment.”

Another Nir Oz family member, Noam Peri, whose father, Haim Peri, 80, was killed in Hamas captivity, offers a fierce condemnation of the government, asking the forgiveness of those from the kibbutz who were killed, for being abandoned by the government.

“You were abandoned on that Shabbat, and we’re still in the hands of the government that abandoned you,” says Peri. “Tens of citizens killed isn’t the price that should be paid during a war. Tens of hostages, mostly citizens who were taken, survived long weeks, despite a government policy that preferred military pressure to a deal. This policy that goes against everything that the state stands for, we have to fix that.”