{"id":260635,"date":"2026-01-27T20:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/260635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T20:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:37:18","slug":"after-843-days-the-clock-counting-the-painful-wait-for-israels-hostages-has-finally-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/260635\/","title":{"rendered":"After 843 days, the clock counting the painful wait for Israel\u2019s hostages has finally stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tel Aviv
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n For over two years, it was one of the most powerful symbols at Tel Aviv\u2019s Hostages Square: a digital stopwatch, counting every minute, hour, and day since 251 Israelis were abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Tuesday, a day after the body of the last Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili, was returned to Israel, the clock counting one of the darkest chapters in the country\u2019s history was finally stopped.\n <\/p>\n

\n After 843 days \u2013 more than 20,250 hours, or 1,215,000 minutes \u2013 all Israeli hostages, living and dead, were back on home soil.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRani is here with us. Not in the way we wished and prayed for, but he is here. Now we can finally pause this clock, and we can start to breathe, to heal, and to mourn,\u201d said Shira Gvili, Ran\u2019s sister. \u201cJust as we promised \u2013 until the very last hostage\u201d Gvili said, addressing the croud. \u201cWe made it happen, we brought Rani home.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Gvili was joined by hundreds of Israelis including captivity survivors, families of hostages, and volunteers of the Hostages Families Forum who gathered in silence to watch the clock stop its counting. Only after a few minutes did they allow themselves to revel in the moment, unleashing a wave of applause, as if waiting to be sure this chapter had really come to an end.\n <\/p>\n

\"<p>Hundreds<\/p>\n

After more than 843 days, the clock counting the painful wait for Israel\u2019s hostages has finally stopped\n <\/p>\n

\"<p>Hundreds<\/p>\n

After more than 843 days, the clock counting the painful wait for Israel\u2019s hostages has finally stopped<\/p>\n

0:12 <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m still checking my pulse to see that it is real,\u201d Dr. Hagai Levin, who led the forum\u2019s health team, told CNN. As the chief doctor, he said, \u201cit was my obligation to believe that it was possible and my duty to give the families hope.\u201d The stopping of the clock \u201csymbolizes the end of an era, a time of transition\u201d Levin added. \u201cWe said all the time that without bringing back all of the hostages Israel cannot really recover. Now we are able to close the chapter of hostages and I hope rehabilitation begins.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n While Gvili\u2019s return for burial gave his family the dignity and honor they deserved, it also provided closure for the Israelis who demonstrated in the square week after week, supporting the hostages\u2019 families in their struggle.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israelis flooded social media with pictures of them removing their yellow pin, which had become the ubiquitous symbol for the hostages, worn on bracelets, t-shirts and more. \u201cOctober 7 is over,\u201d one viral post declared. \u201cNow October 8 can finally begin.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The milestone carries added significance, as for the first time since 2014 that Israel has no hostages held in Gaza. The Hostages Families Forum\u2019s campaign slogan was \u201cuntil the last one,\u201d and they stood by their commitment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Evan, who declined to give her last name, arrived at the square with her dog wrapped in an Israeli flag. She said the timing, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is also significant, lending weight to a much older Jewish and Israeli vow: \u201cNever again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t think of a better day for Rani to come back,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet the end of the long fight to retrieve the hostages also refocuses attention on those who did not come back alive. More than 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas-led terror attack on October 7, and at least 46 out of the 251 hostages taken to Gaza died during their captivity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the return of all the hostages as an extraordinary achievement. \u201cWe finished the mission,\u201d he said in a press conference on Tuesday evening.\n <\/p>\n

\n But survivors and bereaved families of the deceased hostages are more critical of the government celebrations.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u2018It is allowed to rejoice \u2013 because the people have brought them home. Just don\u2019t forget that it could have been, it should have been, and it must be different next time,\u201d Gil Dickman, the cousin of Carmel Gat who was killed in a Gaza underground tunnel in August 2024, wrote on X.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee Seigel, brother of Keith Seigel, who was released in a January 2025 ceasefire deal, told CNN that he had firmly believed all of the hostages would return. \u201cIt took Aviva, my sister-in-law, 51 days to be brought back, and my brother Keith 484 days to be brought back and we knew we wouldn\u2019t stop until Ran Gvili is back,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, he added, \u201cit\u2019s all taken way too long, too much politics. It did not have to take so long, hostages did not have to be murdered, many soldiers and civilians in Gaza did not have to die for this. The war had to happen because Hamas invaded our country but it took too long to take this clock off. I\u2019m overwhelmed with happiness, but I need tomorrow to be a much better day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tel Aviv \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 For over two years, it was one of the most powerful symbols at Tel Aviv\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-260635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260635","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=260635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}