The sister of the last Israeli Oct. 7 victim whose remains are believed to still be held in Gaza told The Post on Sunday of the unbearable “uncertainty” her family has faced over his whereabouts for nearly three years.
Shira Gvili, the sibling of slain elite Israeli police counter-terror Master Sgt. Ran “Rani’’ Gvili, said the recent Australian Hannukah massacre only added to her family’s strife.
“Seeing those images brought back thoughts of Oct. 7,” said Shira, 24 —the same age as her “hero’’ brother when he is believed to have died in the 2023 Palestinian terror attack.
“It sincerely broke my heart the moment I saw the news about what happened in Bondi Beach,’’ she said, referring to the Dec. 14 murder of at least 15 people at the Jewish holiday event Down Under.
“And I have many friends who live there, so I started to send messages to all [of them]. I couldn’t calm down until they all responded,” the youn woman said.
Shira, speaking through an interpreter from New York, where this week she addressed the United Nations, said it was excruciating to see “all these antisemites around the world” emboldened in the wake of Oct. 7.
“We don’t deserve that. Because Jews, we celebrate life, we honor life. We deserve to live in peace and in quiet,” Shira said, adding that the Bondi Beach terror attack brought home for her that the Jewish people “don’t have a safe place.”
Gvili also recalled in heart-wrenching detail the unbearable “uncertainty” she and her family faced not knowing if her brother was alive.
Israeli officials have said he died Oct. 7, with his body and the others of some of those slain taken to Gaza by the terrorists.
The last image the family has of Ran is him being taken away on a motorbike, with the Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip visible in the background.
Gvili said her older brother must not be forgotten ahead of the Dec. 29 White House talks between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
All but Ran’s believed remains have been released to Israel, authorities have said — and the return of his body is considered a final hurdle before any peace talks between Hamas and Israel can move forward.
The Palestinian terror group has insisted it does not know where his remains are, while recent storms in the Gaza Strip have also complicated the hunt for his captors.
Meanwhile, Ran’s family, presented with no conclusive evidence of his death, remains in a state of uncertainty, holding out the faintest of hopes that he is still alive.
Shira shared with The Post photographs of her and her brother, including intimate pictures in which the two siblings can be seen pulling goofy faces and laughing in each other’s company.
Shira said she would rather her last image of Ran be those happy ones, rather than the pictures of him being taken away on a motorbike by armed Hamas militants near Kibbutz Alumim, around two miles from the Gaza border.
“He raised me. We are good siblings, very close siblings. He always helped me growing up,” she said.
Their mother, Talik, is a lawyer and their father, Itzik, a project manager, and it often fell on the two siblings to entertain and look after each other while their parents were at work, she explained.
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Ran was due to undergo surgery on a broken shoulder after a motorcycle accident when he learned of the attack and joined his fellow officers in defending his homeland, despite his injury.
“He told my mom that he can’t let them go without him,” Shira said.
“So he went to his unit, put his uniform on, and fights. And in the middle of the morning, he was fighting alone against a thousand terrorists, and he got kidnapped,” she said.
“It’s really important not to allow the second stage [of the peace plan] to be fulfilled and to be executed, because we need to get Rani back,” Shira said.
Describing her older brother as a “symbol of bravery and heroism,” she called on her country to prioritize returning him from Gaza.
“Israel is always about keeping the symbols close, symbols that are symbolizing heroism and Judaism,” Shira said.
“Rani is a symbol, and we cannot allow leaving him there. We need to keep him safe in Israel.
“I have no feelings at the moment. I blocked everything. But I hope it will be soon,” Shira said, in response to a question about when she feels Hamas will finally return her brother.
As for those who captured Ran, she said she wants them to “face the law,” in whatever form that may take.
While the family faces an agonizing wait for information on Ran, they now prepare to face another Hanukkah and a family milestone without Ran.
“My grandfather’s birthday is on Dec. 31, so every year we all gather together and celebrate,” Shira said.
“Rani would never miss any of his birthdays.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
