Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the return of the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, was “an extraordinary achievement for Israel,” as US President Donald Trump hailed his own administration’s “amazing job” in securing his recovery and impromptu gatherings were held across Israel to mark the first time in over 11 years without captives held in the Strip.
Gvili’s body was snatched to Gaza on October 7, 2023, after he was killed defending Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel during the Hamas-led onslaught that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. His body was found a day after Israel confirmed searching for it in a Gaza City cemetery based on new intelligence.
The return of Gvili’s body was “an extraordinary achievement for the Israel Defense Forces, the State of Israel, the citizens of Israel, because you gave us the backing to complete the work,” Netanyahu told reporters at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
“We promised, and I promised, to bring everyone back, and we brought everyone back, down to the last one,” he said. “Rani is a hero of Israel. He went in first; he came out last. He came back.”
Speaking later in the Knesset plenum, Netanyahu ceremoniously removed from his lapel the yellow ribbon pin that has come to symbolize the struggle for the hostages’ return.
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“Now that the mission is accomplished, it’s time to take it off,” he said.
With the last hostage back, the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire “is not rehabilitation, but the disarmament of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza,” Netanyahu added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks outside his office at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“We have an interest in promoting that phase and not delaying it,” he said. He did not comment on Israel’s own commitments as part of the second phase, including letting more aid into Gaza and reopening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. On Sunday, his office said Israel would open the crossing once the search for Gvili’s body was complete.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speasks in the Knesset, January 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The return of Gvili’s body marked the first time since 2014 that there were no Israelis held hostage in Gaza, as even before October 7, Hamas had been holding two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers hostage.
President Isaac Herzog said in a statement on Gvili’s return that “the entire people of Israel is moved to tears.”
“After many difficult years, for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment. May Ran’s memory be a blessing,” he said.
Herzog also published a video of himself and his wife, Michal, removing their hostage pins. In a second video, they told Gvili’s parents, Talik and Itzik, over the phone that “the heart of the entire people of Israel is exploding with love for you.”
Police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili. (Courtesy)
The parents could be heard thanking the president and his wife for their support, with Talik saying: “We’re proud of our country and our troops.” In her own comments later outside the Gvili family home in southern Israel’s Meitar, Talik tearfully reiterated that message, saying, “Our pride is much, much stronger than our pain.”
In another, English-language, post, Herzog said his residence had “finally removed the yellow chair” that many Israeli institutions had erected to honor the hostages following the October 7 attack. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took part in the ceremony, said Herzog.
הנשיא הרצוג מסיר את סיכת החטופים ובבית הנשיא מסירים את סממני החטופים ???? pic.twitter.com/m9B2kqXt5b
— Yanir Cozin – יניר קוזין (@yanircozin) January 26, 2026
“This is the moment we have been waiting 843 days for,” said Herzog. “Tonight, the people of Israel can slowly begin to heal.”
“It was particularly symbolic to share this moment with my friend, Mike Huckabee, as together we thanked President Donald Trump
for his exceptional leadership and commitment to bringing home every last hostage,” said Herzog.
This is the moment we have been waiting 843 days for.
We finally removed the yellow chair from the President’s Residence after our last hostage, Ran Gvili, was returned home.
It was particularly symbolic to share this moment with my friend, @USAmbIsrael Mike Huckabee, as… pic.twitter.com/zO1PfxwO8q
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) January 26, 2026
Meanwhile, Israeli politicians across the spectrum also hailed the return of Gvili’s body, while offering condolences to his family.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X that “the promise has been fulfilled,” and thanked Israel’s security forces “for their tremendous efforts,” while Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Gvili’s return was “a painful moment of closure” that “underscores the State of Israel’s commitment to its soldiers and citizens: to bring every single one home.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, saluted Gvili and other officers who “were the firewall on October 7.”
“I join in the great pain of the dear Gvili family, alongside the great relief and joy that Ran is no longer in the enemy’s hands,” said Ben Gvir. He pledged to the family that “we will keep accompanying and embracing you, and we won’t let go for a second.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a police Memorial Day ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery, April 30, 2025. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
In a video statement on Gvili’s return, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared he would now do “one of the happiest and saddest things I have ever done,” and also removed the yellow ribbon pin from his lapel.
“I’m sending a big hug to the family of Ran Gvili and to the security forces, who have done an amazing job, and to the entire people of Israel,” said Lapid. “There are things that set aside all our disagreements. The entire people of Israel thank the almighty God today that [Gvili] was brought to a final rest and his family will be able to visit his grave.”
Meanwhile, Yair Golan, head of opposition party The Democrats, said the return of the last hostage was “the opening shot for our next fight.”
“No more sloganeering and whitewashing,” said Golan, demanding a state commission of inquiry be established into the failures surrounding the October 7 onslaught — something Netanyahu has refused to do.
“Our duty is to ensure that the debacle cannot repeat itself, and that no Israeli family will go through this hell again,” said Golan.
Activists in Kfar Saba take down a poster of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili after his body was returned from Gaza, marking the return of the final hostage, on January 26, 2026. (Danor Aharon/ Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
In Kfar Saba, a group of activists gathered to symbolically remove the shirts, necklaces and pins calling for the return of the hostages. Others removed the poster of Gvili from a wall that had once featured the photos of all 251 hostages, and which were taken down one by one as they were returned.
The group was joined by Ruti Strum, the mother of released hostages Eitan and Iair Horn.
In Tel Aviv, a small group gathered on Begin Road, where, for more than two years, anti-government activists took up the hostages’ cause during weekly Saturday night demonstrations.
Others flocked to the city’s Hostages Square throughout the evening and into the night.
Trump, meanwhile, congratulated his own aides, while his son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner hailed international and Gazan cooperation in returning Gvili’s body.
US President Donald Trump holds the charter during a signing ceremony on his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Writing on his Truth Social platform, the president congratulated his “great team of Champions” for brokering the Gaza ceasefire deal that secured the return of the last 20 living and 28 slain hostages.
“Just recovered the last Hostage body in GAZA. Thus, got back ALL 20 of the living Hostages, and ALL of the Dead!” wrote Trump. “AMAZING JOB! Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do. Congratulations to my great team of Champions!!!”
Trump’s top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner, an architect of the Gaza ceasefire, also hailed the coordination between the US, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, and “many cooperative Gazans,” who he said helped locate and return the bodies of all the deceased hostages from Gaza.
“Coordination and trust were built between individuals and organizations where none previously existed. This produced tangible results,” said Kushner on X.
He did not elaborate on that coordination. The Ynet news site reported Friday that a Palestinian informant retrieved the body of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul from a locked refrigerator in January 2025, wrapped it in a rug, and carried it on his shoulder for 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) to IDF troops in Gaza.
“Helping the people of Gaza start a new chapter free from the tyranny of Hamas is a critical mission to prevent future death and destruction for Israelis and Palestinians,” Kushner said. “This will also eliminate a flashpoint manipulated by disingenuous actors to mobilize antisemitism and other forms of division and hatred.
“We are trying new approaches, hoping to achieve new outcomes. This is an end, but also a new beginning,” Kushner added.
US businessman Jared Kushner speaks at the ‘Board of Peace’ meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2026. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
Hamas, for its part, said the retrieval of Gvili’s body demonstrated the terror group’s commitment to the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“The discovery of the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, including the prisoner exchange,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem in a statement, calling on mediators to compel Israel “to stop violating the agreement and to implement its required obligations.”
“Hamas will continue to adhere to all aspects of the agreement, including facilitating the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and ensuring its success,” said Qassem, referring to the committee of independent Palestinian technocrats that is supposed to take control of Gaza from Hamas under Trump’s peace plan.
Hamas’s smaller ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed it had provided the coordinates for Gvili’s body three weeks ago and that Israel purposely sat on the information. PIJ has previously said that, while the terror organization initially held Gvili’s body in Gaza, it later handed it over to Hamas.
“Based on new information, we gave the coordinates of the last prisoner’s body to mediators three weeks ago,” said the spokesman for PIJ’s armed wing, al-Quds Brigades, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Hamza.
“The enemy purposely delayed coordination and search operations” for the body, he accused, referring to Israel.
The Shin Bet security agency gave a different account, saying a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative who was captured by Israeli forces in Gaza City a month ago provided information that strengthened intelligence that the body was located at the cemetery.
The Shin Bet said the operative had been involved in military activity against Israeli forces during the war, and was suspected of being “knowledgeable about the details of the burial location” of Gvili.
During his interrogation, the operative “described his involvement in transferring the body between several locations and also identified additional individuals who were aware of its whereabouts,” the security agency said.
Egyptian Red Crescent members monitor a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it enters the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, October 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
Palestinians in Gaza said they hoped the recovery of the remains would lead to the opening of Rafah Crossing and allow travel to and from Gaza, along with the evacuation of people needing medical care.
“We hope this will close off Israel’s pretexts and open the crossing,” said Abdel-Rahman Radwan, a Gaza City resident whose mother is a cancer patient and requires treatment outside Gaza.
Ahmed Ruqab, a father who lives with his family of six in a tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp, called for mediators and the US to pressure Israel to allow more aid and caravans into Gaza.
“We need to turn this page and restart,” he said over the phone.
AP contributed to this report.