The family of Ran Gvili, one of the two remaining deceased hostages held in Gaza, said Monday that the weekly Saturday night support rallies that have been held for two years at Hostages Square will end, as they pivot to pre-Sabbath gatherings held on Friday afternoons at the Tel Aviv plaza.

The family announced the change in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main organization that has supported the hostages’ families throughout the war and organized the Saturday rallies, which drew tens of thousands of people.

The remains of two hostages killed on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel, are still in Gaza: Gvili, a police officer who was killed fending off the Hamas-led invasion in Kibbutz Alumim; and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he worked in agriculture. During the Hamas attack, terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 to the Gaza Strip.

“As a family, we know we can’t keep fighting this battle the same way we have been,” the Gvilis said.

The fight to bring back hundreds of hostages “is not the same as the fight to bring back the last two,” it said. “We must keep demanding the return of Rani and Sudthisak, but we need to adjust to this new reality.”

“The fight continues, but we’re changing course,” said the family.

The Friday rallies will also be held in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the focal point of the families’ activities, and will be themed as a “Kabbalat Shabbat,” it said, referring to the traditional Jewish service to welcome in the Sabbath........

© The Times of Israel