Candle lightings nationwide honor final hostage Ran Gvili for first night of Hanukkah

Netanyahu, Herzog hold separate ceremonies with family of slain cop still held in Gaza; lighting with troops, IDF chief says military will not allow enemies to ‘build up’ capabilities

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog gathered with the family of Ran Gvili, the final deceased Israeli hostage whose remains have yet to be returned from Gaza, on Sunday night for two separate Hanukkah candle lighting events to mark the first night of the eight-day festival.

Herzog and his wife, Michal, were also joined by freed hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, Matan Angrest, Shlomi Ziv, Noralin Babadilla, Margalit Mozes, Clara Merman, Moran Stella Yanai, and Gabriella and Mia Lemberg.

The president, in his speech, focused on the two-year-long campaign by the families of the hostages to bring their loved ones home following their kidnapping during the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023. He told those gathered that he had experienced the “immense privilege” of being the address that many of them turned to for “conversations, to cry, and for hope in moments of brokenness and in moments of pride.”

“Ran is a police officer who fell heroically in battle on October 7. 800 days later, Ran is now the last hostage still being held by murderous terrorists in Gaza,” Herzog said. “We renew our call for Ran to be released immediately and returned home to his dear family for dignified burial!”

The first candle of Hanukkah, he said, was to be a “candle of remembrance, for all the deceased hostages who will remain engraved on the hearts of the people for generations to come.”

Later on Sunday, Gvili’s family attended a second candle lighting event, this time alongside Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh.

“We will return Rani, just as we returned 254 of the 255 hostages,” Netanyahu promised Gvili’s family at the event.

“There were those who did not believe” that Israel would bring the hostages back, the premier said. “I believe. My colleagues in the government believed. They said, ‘It will be a miracle.’ I said, ‘This nation creates miracles.’ The Holy One, blessed be He, helps a people who help themselves.”

Netanyahu also turned to the deadly terror shooting in Sydney, in which at least 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach. He criticized the policy of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and predicted more such attacks.

“The safe place for Jews around the world is where the government, the army, and the security forces protect them — first and foremost in Israel, because we defend ourselves,” he said.

Speaking after the premier, Ben Gvir discussed a bill promoted by his Otzma Yehudit party, which, if passed into law, would mandate the death penalty for non-Jewish terrorists.

“A state that respects life must say to those who harm its citizens — their blood is on their own heads,” he said.

The first Hanukkah candle is a “candle of hope,” remarked police chief Danny Levy, focusing on Gvili and his family, and a “prayer for the return of a hero of Israel.”

Similar candle lighting events across Israel saw communities in Haifa, Zichron Yaakov,  Kfar Saba and elsewhere come together for the first night of Hanukkah to honor Gvili and call for his body to be returned.

Elsewhere in Israel, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir discussed the military’s operations at a candle lighting event in northern Israel.

He told the troops gathered there that the IDF would not allow its enemies to “build up” their capabilities, after an airstrike on Saturday killed senior Hamas official Raad Saad, who headed the terror group’s weapons manufacturing headquarters.

“Yesterday, we eliminated Raad Saad, one of the senior figures of the military wing of the Hamas terror organization, who led and carried out terror activities for more than 30 years and was one of the architects of the October 7 attack,” he said.

“His involvement in Hamas’s attempts to restore and rebuild [its forces] constituted a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Zamir continued, noting that “within a short period” Israel killed Hezbollah’s military chief — on November 23 — and Hamas’s head of weapons production.

“We will not allow the enemy to build up its capabilities and will respond to any violation of the agreement. Our policy is clear, on all fronts, and here in Lebanon as well, we will continue to act and thwart threats as they emerge,” Zamir added.