The Israel Police confirmed Wednesday that Sergeant First Class Ran Gvili, 24, an officer in the Israeli Police Southern District’s Special Patrol Unit (Yasam), was killed in action during clashes with Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim in Israel south on October 7, and his body is now being held in Gaza. The number of police casualties since the start of the war stands at 61.
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The police reported that a committee convened on January 30 with representatives from the Health Ministry, military intelligence officials, the Israel Police, the Religious Affairs Ministry, and the Chief Rabbi of Israel, determined based on the findings presented to it that Gvili had been killed in action.
The police said in a statement that Gvili "acted with courage while risking his life on the front lines against the enemy in the battle for Kibbutz Alumim, and his body was abducted and is being held by a terror organization."
Sergeant First Class Gvili was 24 years old at the time of his death, and lived in Meitar in the northern Negev. He left behind his parents, Itzik and Talik, and two siblings, Omri and Shira.
On October 7, a Hamas terrorist cell infiltrated Kibbutz Alumim and murdered nearly 20 Thai and Nepalese foreign workers, with members of the southern community’s alert squad fending them off for six hours.
A commander of the Israel Prison Service’s Metzada unit that rushed to the site recalled the battle. “We spotted the Hamas van at the back entrance to Alumim, with large quantities of RPGs, explosives, and ammunition and we realized that these were strong teams rather than a lone terrorist with a Kalashnikov.”
“On our way to the gate, we were met with heavy gunfire and my fighters managed to kill several terrorists. Our platoon commander was shot in the arm and carried on fighting for an hour. We saw a number of bodies and we killed a lot of terrorists, but the degree and scope of cruelty we met in the field was something quite new,” he added.