Key Takeaways:
- The IDF recovered Ran Gvili’s body after it was unlawfully held hostage in Gaza for 843 days.
- Hamas violated the October 2025 ceasefire by failing to return Gvili’s body within the agreed 72-hour timeframe.
- Despite this clear breach, major media outlets avoided holding Hamas accountable and instead framed his return as ceasefire compliance.
For 843 days, Ran Gvili’s body was unlawfully held hostage in Gaza. Gvili’s heroism shone through as one of the first people to respond to the horrific terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, doing all he could to defend the people and the land he cared so much to protect. He was killed while fighting Hamas terrorists that day and more than two years later, on January 26, 2026, he became the final hostage to return home.
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Gvili’s body, like the bodies of all other hostages cruelly held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, was originally meant to be returned to Israel for a proper and dignified Jewish burial within 72 hours of signing the October 2025 ceasefire agreement. But, as terrorist groups rarely actually abide by the contract they signed, his body was withheld, with Hamas and Islamic Jihad claiming that the terrorist organizations did not know where his body was located.
This is extremely difficult to believe, considering Gvili’s body was found in a Palestinian cemetery in Gaza, meaning that the terrorists who buried him knew exactly which plot of land he was in. Unsurprisingly, but incredibly upsetting nonetheless, is the virtual lack of coverage that acknowledged not only how his body was held hostage, but also that it was further desecrated by not being given the opportunity for a proper burial in accordance with Jewish law. It was yet another cruel tactic in Hamas’ rulebook.
When his recovery by the IDF was announced and shared in the media, it wasn’t the IDF’s efforts that were acknowledged. Instead, it was Hamas that was given the credit.
The New York Times, for example, originally ran with a headline that claimed “Hamas Hands Over Body of Ran Gvili,” which could not have been further from the truth. Although the headline was quickly and quietly updated, Hamas’ refusal to hand over the body was an explicit violation of the ceasefire and thus does not deserve to receive any praise in Gvili’s return.
Trey Yingst of Fox News similarly remarked that Gvili’s body was returned “in accordance with the Gaza ceasefire agreement.” But if that truly were the case, Gvili would have returned within the first 72 hours of signing the agreement, not after several months.
No, @TreyYingst, Ran Gvili has not been “returned in accordance” with the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas did not give back his body as they were required to. The IDF mounted a search operation to bring him home.
Like its failure to disarm, Hamas has NOT complied with the ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/RvOUVJ5xuf
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2026
The media’s insistence on portraying Hamas as abiding by the ceasefire entirely misrepresents the strategy of the terrorist group as well as the lengths to which the IDF went to retrieve Gvili’s body. Once intelligence was received by the IDF and Shin Bet, Gvili’s body was retrieved within a matter of days. It thus begs the question why the media are still reprinting Hamas’ fabrication that it was unknown to the terrorist organizations where his body was.
The media so frequently question Israel and its intentions, despite the state’s consistent and clear goal throughout the war of securing the return of every hostage. Yet when it comes to Hamas, there is no hesitation in platforming its spokesman, without challenging the narratives he creates. In doing so, the media elevate the voice of a terrorist organization to the same level of authority as that of a democratic nation.
Hamas plays for time and fails to return all the hostages as required in the ceasefire agreement.
Israel finds and recovers the body of the final missing hostage.
Hamas takes credit, presenting itself as an exemplary contributor to the ceasefire despite consistently refusing to… pic.twitter.com/iYW8Oxi5ig
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 27, 2026
Gvili is finally home and able to be buried with dignity – not because Hamas upheld the ceasefire, but because the IDF refused to abandon its commitment to bring every hostage home. The international media’s amplification of Hamas’ narrative reveals just how far it is willing to go to obscure the terrorist group’s violations and strip the Jewish state of any positive recognition.
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