JERUSALEM – There were hundreds, then dozens, and then just a few. Now there’s one Israeli hostage left in Gaza: Ran Gvili.

Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known affectionately as “Rani,” was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war . After a series of ceasefire-mandated exchanges of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel, Gvili’s body still has not been recovered.

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His remains lie somewhere in Gaza. On Thursday, as Israel woke to the news that remains returned the previous day belonged to another hostage, the country mourned him as a hero who died fighting to save a kibbutz that was not his own.

“The first to go, the last to leave,” his mother, Talik Gvili, wrote on Facebook Thursday. “We won’t stop until

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