Former IDF Hostage Chief:  Hamas Facing “Objective Difficulty” Locating Body of Fallen Captive

Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who served as the IDF’s senior official for hostage affairs since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, says Hamas is experiencing “objective difficulty” in locating the body of Ran Gvili, the final deceased Israeli hostage still held in Gaza. His remarks appear in a wide ranging interview with Ynet, the first since he completed more than two years leading intelligence and coordination efforts on captives and missing persons.

According to Alon, the uncertainty stems from chaos inside Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 onslaught. “It’s related to the chaos they faced immediately after October 7,” he said. “Nevertheless, we believe that it is possible to bring him back. There is a connection between the pressure applied to Hamas and the results, so we can’t give up.”

Arabic media reported Sunday that Hamas and the International Committee of the Red Cross were unable to locate Gvili’s remains during recent searches in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Gvili, a 24 year old police master sergeant, joined the fighting around Kibbutz Alumim despite recovering from a broken collarbone at home. He was wounded and taken into Gaza, where authorities say he did not survive long after capture.

In the interview, Alon describes the formation of the IDF’s ad hoc hostage headquarters, which emerged spontaneously during the first night of the war. He said no formal appointment preceded his leadership role: “On October 7 I checked how I could help… By that night we had built a command center.” More than 100 personnel arrived by the next morning, he said, with the operation later expanding to roughly 2,500 people over the following months.

Alon recounts the initial effort to account for 3,146 missing individuals, a number that included those killed, trapped, hiding, or abducted. After weeks of work, the team concluded that 251 people had been kidnapped, adding long-held captives Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed to the list.

He also describes the intelligence systems built to locate hostages, relying on extensive social media footage, police camera recordings, witness testimony, and classified material collected in Gaza by Military Intelligence, Shin Bet, and Unit 504. He acknowledged the psychological toll of the work but said the mission’s clarity kept the team focused: “Our task was to keep them alive.”

Alon concluded that the effort will be complete only when Gvili’s body is returned to Israel.