US President Trump indicates US knows location of remains of last Israeli hostage Ran Gvili

U.S. President Donald Trump said that his government believes it knows the location of slain Israeli hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last hostage left in Gaza. 

His comments came during a press conference Tuesday night in which he summarized his first year in office. 

“They all came out, we got the 20 living hostages,” Trump said. “We got the 28 hostages, they have one left that we think we know where it is, amazing, it looked like we weren’t going to get anywhere near that, now they’ve gotten that almost.” 

President Trump has hinted that the location of the one remaining hostage Ran Gvili is known. "We brought back the last 20 hostages. There's one hostage who didn't come back; it seems we know where he is." pic.twitter.com/HaTJbECFqv

— Eretz Israel (@EretzIsrael) January 21, 2026

Master Sgt. Gvili was a member of the Israel Police's Yasam counter-terrorism unit and was killed fighting Palestinian terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza. However, in an interview with Hebrew newspaper Maariv in December, Ran’s mother said that he was likely not killed during the fighting, but died from injuries afterwards. 

“The intelligence is that Ran was not killed in the field. We know he was wounded in the heroic battle at Kibbutz Alumim, shot in the hand and shoulder area. Intelligence believes that he did not receive medical treatment and therefore didn’t survive," Talik Gvili said. "But for us, these assessments are not official or definitive. There’s no conclusive picture proving his death. We want to believe he lost consciousness, was taken to Gaza severely wounded, received medical care there, and is still alive and hidden. We want to believe that.” 

Israeli intelligence has assessed that Ran died shortly after Oct. 7, and none of the Palestinian terror factions have released any indication that Gvili was alive. 

“President Trump’s statement confirms what we have been saying for the past three months: Hamas knows exactly where our son is and has knowingly and deliberately violated President Trump’s framework and the agreement to return all hostages,” Ran Gvili’s family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. 

The family also stated that "Now, the Israeli government and the American administration have the responsibility to exert the full weight of their authority to ensure that Hamas fulfills its obligations under the agreement, or guarantee serious sanctions will be imposed on it.” 

The family referred to the meeting with Trump last month, when they accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Florida for a meeting with the U.S. president. 

“President Trump looked us in the eyes with tears and promised us that he would bring our Rani home, we have no doubt that he is a man of his word and that we will see Rani home soon,” they said. “The responsibility for bringing Rani home rests with the Israeli government, which must refrain from any steps toward implementing phase two until Rani has returned.” 

Israel has previously claimed that Palestinian factions have knowledge regarding the whereabouts of Gvili’s remains, but this marks the first time that President Trump has made the same claim. Previously, the Gvili family noted that the U.S. was convinced that Hamas did not know the location. Israelis have called on the government not to proceed with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire until Gvili’s remains are returned for burial. 

Following Trump’s statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said, “We provided all the information we have regarding Ran Gvili.” 

The terrorist organization's spokesman also claimed that Hamas responded positively to all requests for search efforts, while blaming Israel. 

“Israel has repeatedly delayed search efforts in areas beyond the Yellow Line,” Qassem claimed.

“We are updating the mediators directly on efforts to reach him and we are ready to cooperate with the mediators and the guarantors of the agreement in any effort that will lead to finding the body, but Israel is taking advantage of the failure to locate him to evade commitments of the first phase.”