A digital stopwatch that had been counting every passing second since 251 Israelis were taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, was turned off Tuesday night in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in a solemn ceremony with a broad public turnout.
The display, which had marked 843 days and 12 hours, was halted a day after Israeli forces recovered the body of St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili, the final hostage whose remains were still in Gaza. With his return, all Israeli hostages—living and deceased—were back in Israel.
Families of captives, former hostages, and volunteers from the Hostages Families Forum gathered beneath the clock as it was retired. For several minutes, the crowd stood quietly before applause broke out, signaling a moment many had doubted would arrive.
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“We are here on a day we prayed for since Oct. 7 for 844 days. The clock kept running, counting every day, every minute, every second,” said Malki Shem-Tov, father of former captive Omer Shem-Tov. “Since our worlds stopped on Oct. 7, we never imagined that clock would reach three digits. Thank God we can finally stop counting.”
Shira Gvili, the sister of Ran Gvili, also addressed those assembled. “Rani 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,” she said. “Just as we promised – until the very last hostage. We made it happen, we brought Rani home.”
For more than two years, the illuminated counter became one of the central symbols of the public campaign to return the hostages. It ticked through more than 20,250 hours and over 1.2 million minutes.
The ceremony marked both the end of a prolonged national vigil and a new phase following nearly four months of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas terrorists.