{"id":211074,"date":"2025-12-30T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211074\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:14:14","slug":"rani-was-the-iron-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211074\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rani was the Iron Man’"},"content":{"rendered":"

They were six \u2014 Tom, Manu, Nadav, Bar, Guy and Rani. Today they are five. They grew up together in Meitar, a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone. A group built over years, one that saw itself as family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe became one unit,\u201d said Tom Brodsky. \u201cA group that understands each other just by looking, without words. The families, the partners \u2014 everyone was part of it. We did everything together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05de\u05e6\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05dd<\/a>\"\u05de\u05e6\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05dd<\/p>\n

The five friends at the location where he was last seen<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/a>\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/p>\n

The shared tattoo in his honor: ‘Rani was the Iron Man’<\/p>\n

On the night before October 7 \u2014 the last night before Rani Gvili<\/a> was killed in the battle for Kibbutz Alumim and later identified as the last fallen soldier held captive in Gaza \u2014 the group spent time together. They went to a party in Beersheba. Two weeks earlier, Rani had broken his shoulder and was in severe pain. After someone accidentally hit his injured shoulder at the party, he went home early.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis shoulder hurt badly,\u201d Tom said. \u201cOn October 7, when I woke up and understood what was happening, it was clear to me \u2014 Rani wasn\u2019t going out. No chance.\u201d All of the friends assumed he would stay home because of the injury. \u201cWe all knew about it. We knew he was scheduled for surgery. There was a certain calm, thinking he was injured at home,\u201d said Guy Elkabets.<\/p>\n

But Rani was not at home. He went out to save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called him Saturday morning and he told me, \u2018I\u2019m in an exchange of fire, I\u2019ll talk to you later,\u2019\u201d Tom recalled. \u201cThen I started hearing bursts of gunfire in the background.\u201d Shortly afterward, a message arrived: \u201cI\u2019m injured, brother, don\u2019t tell anyone,\u201d along with a selfie showing blood on his face. Contact was then lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cRani was a special person,\u201d Tom said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason he told me not to tell anyone. He knew that if the friends found out, we\u2019d all gear up and go looking for him. He didn\u2019t want to put us at risk. That was Rani.\u201d<\/p>\n

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5 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/a>\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/p>\n

Friends of the late Rani Gvili await his return <\/p>\n

(Photo: Uriel Even Sapir)<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/a>\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5<\/p>\n

(Photo: Uriel Even Sapir)<\/p>\n

For two weeks, Gvili was listed as missing. Tom, himself a police officer, tried to investigate, to find any sign of hope. \u201cMy mind never stopped working. I tried to find any lead.\u201d The group kept messaging, discussing and searching for clues.<\/p>\n

On the day they realized the last location where Rani had fought, they went there together. \u201cWe found Rani\u2019s shell casings,\u201d Guy said. \u201cWe understood what had happened.\u201d When he arrived at the site and sent the location and photos to the group chat, an alert appeared seconds later: Rani Gvili had left the group. \u201cIt was surreal,\u201d Guy said. \u201cLike the sign we had been looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s WhatsApp chat is called \u201cMisken Metumtam,\u201d roughly translating to \u201cclumsy idiot,\u201d a name born from their shared habit of stumbling, falling, breaking things and laughing at themselves. \u201cWe\u2019re all clumsy,\u201d they said. \u201cRani especially.\u201d Each has a nickname. All have logged hundreds of days of reserve duty over the past two years. All miss Rani.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that stopped Rani,\u201d Tom said, \u201cwas that he ran out of ammunition. Today I drive to the same spot where he fought, near that cursed tree. There are a million places to hide around there. And every time I ask myself \u2014 why didn\u2019t you hide, Rani? And then I understand: that\u2019s who he was. He didn\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rani was the glue of the group \u2014 outwardly strong, inwardly sensitive. \u201cHe loved going out and having fun, but he also really loved staying at home,\u201d said Bar Yissacharov. Two days before October 7, they sat in Nadav\u2019s sukkah for a pizza night. Rani told them about his dream of joining the elite Yamam counterterrorism unit. \u201cIt was the first time he said that was his direction \u2014 that the police were his goal. On October 7, he proved how worthy he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

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5 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd<\/a>\"\u05d7\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd<\/p>\n

The entire group – with Rani (left)<\/p>\n

On Jan. 30, when word arrived that Rani was no longer alive, the friends immediately went to his family\u2019s home. \u201cFrom the day he was defined as a hostage, I already thought he wasn\u2019t alive,\u201d said Emmanuel \u201cManu\u201d Ohayon. \u201cI knew his level of dedication. He wouldn\u2019t have allowed himself to go without giving everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

His return, they say, will close a circle. \u201cIf he returns as a fallen soldier, there will be a grave to cry at. If he somehow returns alive, it will be a miracle. But we\u2019ve already received the worst news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got the news, something inside me broke,\u201d Tom said. \u201cTo this day I ask myself what I could have done differently.\u201d But out of the pain came love: Tom met his wife through Rani\u2019s sister. \u201cI\u2019m sure he sent her to me,\u201d he said. \u201cHe looked out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after October 7, the friends decided to commemorate their bond with a shared tattoo in Rani\u2019s memory. The tattoo shows silhouettes of the five remaining friends, set against an image of Iron Man \u2014 a symbol representing Rani, \u201cthe Iron Man,\u201d as they called him after the many injuries he endured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not over until Rani comes back,\u201d the friends said. \u201cNot for us, and not for the people of Israel. The war isn\u2019t over. There\u2019s someone there who needs to come home.\u201d They end with a sentence that lives with them every day in pain: One for all, all for one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They were six \u2014 Tom, Manu, Nadav, Bar, Guy and Rani. Today they are five. They grew up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-211074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}