Trump says ‘we think we know’ location of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “we think we know” where the body of the final hostage, slain Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is being held in the Gaza Strip.

Trump made the revelation during a White House press briefing while going through his administration’s accomplishments during his first year in office.

Gvili, a member of the Yasam police unit, was killed battling terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza, where it is still being held.

“They have one left that we think we know where it is, amazing, it looked like we weren’t going to get anywhere near that, now they’ve gotten that almost,” Trump said of Gvili’s remains.

Gvili’s parents, Itzik and Talik, responded that in light of Trump’s remarks, the US and Israel must apply all possible pressure to ensure that Hamas returns their son.

“President Trump’s statement confirms what we have been saying for the past three months: Hamas knows exactly where our son is and has knowingly and deliberately violated President Trump’s framework and the agreement to return all hostages,” the Gvilis said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represented the families of most of the hostages.

JUST IN: Trump hints that the location of the hostage Ran Gvili is known: "We brought back the last 20 hostages. There's one hostage who didn't come back, it seems we know where he is" pic.twitter.com/0H4BSzXjV0

— TheCapitolInstitute (@CapitolInstitut) January 20, 2026

“The responsibility now lies with the Government of Israel and the US administration to exert the full weight of their authority to ensure that Hamas fulfills its obligations under the agreement, or guarantee that serious sanctions are imposed on Hamas,” the Gvilis said.

Referring to a meeting they had with Trump last month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the US president in Florida, the Gvilis said they trust Trump to keep his personal assurance to them that Ran’s remains will be brought back to Israel.

“President Trump looked us in the eyes, with tears, and promised to bring our Rani home,” they said. “We have no doubt that he is a man of his word, and we believe we will see Rani home soon.”

The Gvili family and supporters had insisted there should be no move into phase two of the US Gaza plan — the start of which the Trump administration announced last week — while Ran’s body remains in the enclave. The US has said it is working for the return of Gvili’s body, but would not hold up phase two for that purpose, though all hostages were supposed to have been returned from Gaza under phase one of the agreement.

“The responsibility for bringing Rani home rests with the Israeli government, which must refrain from any steps toward implementing phase two until Rani has returned,” the Gvilis added in their statement.

A Hamas spokesman, meanwhile, claimed to Al Jazeera that the Palestinian terror group has relayed everything it knows about Gvili’s body and has been working to find it.

Board of Peace the new UN?

During Tuesday’s press conference, Trump was asked whether he wants his new Board of Peace to replace the United Nations.

“It might,” he responded.

“The UN just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the UN potential, but it has never lived up to its potential,” Trump said. “The UN should have settled every one of the wars that I settled… [but] I believe you’ve got to let the UN continue because the potential is so great.”

The US originally presented the Board of Peace as an oversight body focused on Gaza, and the UN Security Council voted in November to give it a mandate to do so until the end of 2027.

But the Board of Peace charter sent to potential members last week makes no mention of Gaza and indicates that the US would like the panel of world leaders to become the world’s preeminent conflict resolution body.

Among those invited to join the board is Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “who I like,” Trump said. He added that he would shortly hold a “very important call” with Erdogan, which he later described as “a very good call.”

The Turkish president’s office said they discussed developments in Syria and Gaza, adding Erdogan told Trump that Turkey would continue to work in coordination with its NATO ally the United States to achieve peace in the latter.

Erdogan thanked Trump for inviting him to join the Board of Peace, it added.

The two’s relationship been a cause of anxiety in Jerusalem, due to Erdogan’s support of Hamas as well as his bitter criticism of Netanyahu and Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu has expressed his opposition to the US placing top representatives from Turkey and Qatar on the Board of Peace’s Gaza Executive Board, which will be playing a key role in the oversight of the postwar management of Gaza.

Iran hangings ‘supposedly off the table’

Trump on Tuesday also reiterated his claim that Iran halted plans to execute protesters last week after threats from Washington.

“They were going to hang 837 people, and… we let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them, and they decided not to do it,” Trump said at the White House. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future, but supposedly they’ve taken that off the table.”

Trump had threatened to strike Iran if it killed protesters, which the regime proceeded to do in the thousands. But toward the end of last week, the US president indicated that he had pulled back from plans to attack due to Iran’s purported cancellation of planned hangings of protesters.

The Islamic Republic has not publicly confirmed those plans.

Agencies contributed to this report.