“Itzik, Talik, Omri, Shira, the wonderful Gvili family.

I will say this in the language of the Bible, on behalf of my wife Sara and myself:

Our souls are bound with yours.

We have spoken many times. We have met many times. We crossed oceans and continents together, including recently, in a heart-stirring meeting with President Trump in Florida. We saw firsthand, with intense emotion, what parental love is, and what sibling love is. We embraced you in your pain, and today we embrace you along with the entire nation, as Ran, a hero of Israel, is brought for a Jewish burial.

VIDEO BELOW WITH ENGLISH CAPTIONS

Honored President of the State, Isaac Herzog. Distinguished guests.

The closing of the grave of Ran Gvili seals the painful reality of the presence of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. All of them, the living and the deceased, we have brought them all home from enemy territory.

The day before yesterday, I watched our soldiers and commanders, driven by a sense of mission deep inside Gaza, as we completed this national task. When Ran was identified, our soldiers burst into a mighty song. They sang ‘Hatikvah’ from the depths of their throats. It made my heart tremble. And they sang—’I believe with perfect faith’.

If we did not believe, we would not have found. If we did not believe, we would not have acted. If we did not believe, we would not have found. If we had not found, the wounds would have remained open forever.

But we believed, we acted, and we found Ran. In doing so, we achieved what we have yearned for throughout these 843 days: to bring all our brothers and sisters home.

And this is not yet the final word. We remain committed to our other goals: To dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities and to demilitarize the Gaza Strip. And this, too, we shall achieve.

Let those who seek our lives know: Whoever raises a hand against Israel will pay an unbearable price. To all those who think they can break us, I say: come to Meitar. To all those who think they will defeat us, listen to Tali Gvili, you will not defeat us. We will defeat and crush you.

In the last 48 hours, with Ran finally here, the yellow pins identified with the hostages have been removed from our lapels. We removed the pins just as we removed, through the heroism of our fighters and the resilience of our people, the stranglehold that the ‘Axis of Evil’ spread around us.

We dealt crushing blows to the Iranian axis. We did so also in the name and for the sake of our loved ones: The murdered, the fallen, the heroes, those in uniform and those without. The generation of heroes, the generation of victory of which Ran Gvili is a prominent representative, has been revealed in all its glory.

Ran, a policeman in the Israel Police National Counter-Terror Unit, leaped from his home on October 7th into the fire of hell in the Western Negev. He refused to stand idly by. He put on his uniform. He armed himself. He considered his injured shoulder as nothing, because he believed with all his heart, with all his soul, that the security of the state rested on his shoulders and the shoulders of his comrades.

Ran saved many lives. Despite being wounded in battle against the terrorists, shot twice in his body along with his injured shoulder, he defended Kibbutz Alumim and killed 14 accursed terrorists. His exemplary fighting, until the very last bullet, will be remembered for generations.

Ran’s fate, like the fate of the other hostages, occupied us incessantly. President Trump, like me, and I saw it on his face, was deeply moved by the nobility of spirit shown by Itzik and Talik, as well as by Omri and Shira.

There, at the meeting in Florida, I thought to myself: Ran was blessed to be the son of great parents, and his parents were blessed with a great son. I looked into the eyes of Itzik and Talik and promised them: ‘We will find Ran; we will bring him back to you.’

And indeed, the moment we were informed, ‘Ran is in our hands,’ was a pure moment of shared destiny and mutual responsibility. The eye weeps in bitterness while the heart rejoices. Deep sorrow mingled with an uplifted spirit. Beyond any opinion or viewpoint, at the moment of truth, we are always together, in good times and bad.

The day before yesterday, when the heartening news of finding Ran reached every home in Israel, I heard the words of the father of another hero, the father of the armored corps officer Captain Daniel Perez, of blessed memory. Daniel fell defending Nahal Oz, was also taken hostage, and was returned to Israel.

The father, Rabbi Doron Perez, said in a message to the Gvili family: ‘This is a day with so much pain and at the same time, with so much honor.’ And I add what we heard here time and again: This is a day with so much pride.

Rabbi Perez continued: ‘We have the merit to live in a country, and be part of a people, who do everything to return even a single hostage. Everything.’ And Rabbi Perez added: ‘We may be a small nation, but we are certainly a large family. A family of giants, like no other among the nations.’

My dear distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, Ran Gvili is brought to eternal rest in the soil of Meitar. The string has been severed, but the melody of Ran’s life will continue.

I and my government have the merit to promote the establishment of a new community in the Negev that will memorialize Ran. The planned community ‘Renanim,’ east of Be’er Sheva, will express through its name the greatness of Ran’s actions for the sake of Israel.

I just told you, Itzik and Talik, that we will promote another initiative—to establish a pre-military academy in Ran’s name, an academy that will prepare young people for the ranks of the Police, the Border Police, and the National Counter Terror Unit, an academy that will pass his name down to generations of warriors.

The prophet Joel says: ‘They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war.’

The inspiring heroism of Ran Gvili will be a foundation stone in the defensive wall of our state forever. May his memory be a blessing.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)