tel aviv
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It has been one of the most powerful symbols in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square for more than two years, ever since 251 Israelis were abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Digital stopwatch counts every minute, hour, and day.
On Tuesday, the day after the body of the last Israeli hostage, Ran Gviri, was returned to Israel, the clock finally stopped on one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history.
After 843 days, or 20,250 hours, or more than 1,215,000 minutes, all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, were returned to their homeland.
“Rani is here with us. It wasn’t in the way we hoped or prayed, but he is here. Now we can finally stop this clock and we can breathe, heal and start grieving,” said Ran’s sister Shira Gviri. “As promised, to the last hostage,” Gviri told the crowd. “We made it happen and brought Lani home.”
Hundreds of Israelis, including survivors of the POWs, family members of the hostages, and volunteers from the Hostage Families Forum, attended Gviri and watched in silence as the clock stopped. After a few minutes, they let out a wave of applause and soaked up the moment, as if they had been waiting for confirmation that this chapter was indeed over.
After more than 843 days, the torturous clock finally stops for Israeli hostages.
After more than 843 days, the torturous clock finally stops for Israeli hostages.
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“I’m still checking the pulse to see if it’s real,” Dr. Hagai Levin, who heads the forum’s health team, told CNN. As his doctor, he said, “It was my duty to believe that it was possible, and it was my duty to give the family hope.” Stopping the clock “symbolizes the end of an era, a period of transition,” Levin added. “We have always said that Israel can only truly recover if we bring back all the hostages. We hope this brings an end to the hostage crisis and allows rehabilitation to begin.”
While Gviri’s return for burial gave his family the dignity and honor they deserved, it also brought an end to the Israelis who had been demonstrating weekly in the square and supporting the hostages’ families in their struggle.
Israelis posted photos on social media of themselves removing yellow pins that have become a universal symbol of hostages, worn on bracelets and T-shirts. “October 7th is over,” one viral post declared. “October 8th is finally the start.”
This milestone has added significance because for the first time since 2014, Israel is not taking hostages in the Gaza Strip. The Hostage Families Forum’s campaign slogan was “To the last man” and they kept that promise.
Evan, who declined to give his last name, arrived at the square with an Israeli flag wrapped around his dog. She said the timing, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was also significant, giving weight to the much older Jewish and Israeli vow of “never again.”
“I can’t think of a better day to have Rani back,” she said.
But the end of a long fight to recover the hostages has also brought renewed attention to those who didn’t make it back alive. More than 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack, and at least 46 of the 251 hostages taken to Gaza died in custody.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the return of all the hostages as an extraordinary achievement. “We have accomplished our mission,” he said at a news conference Tuesday night.
However, survivors and families of the deceased hostages have been more critical of the government’s celebrations.
“We are allowed to rejoice because the people brought them home.” “Remember that it could have been, that it should have been, and that it will be different next time,” Gil Dickman, a cousin of Carmel Gatto, who was killed in Gaza’s underground tunnels in August 2024, wrote in X.
Lee Siegel, the brother of Keith Siegel, who was released in the cease-fire agreement in January 2025, told CNN he was adamant that all the hostages would be returned. “It took 51 days for my sister-in-law Aviva to be brought back and 484 days for my brother Keith to be brought back. We knew it wouldn’t stop until Ran Gviri came back,” he told CNN.
But he added, “Everything took too long and politics went too far. It didn’t have to take so long, the hostages didn’t have to be killed, and so many soldiers and civilians in Gaza didn’t have to die for it. The war had to happen because Hamas invaded our country, but it took too long to take this clock off. I’m happy and overwhelmed, but tomorrow needs to be a better day.”
