At cabinet meeting, IDF chief, Gallant and two other ministers reportedly stress need to reach deal with Hamas for release of captives
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Mossad chief David Barnea told a security cabinet meeting Tuesday that young female hostages held by Hamas don’t have time to wait for a new hostage deal framework, according to unsourced leaks from the gathering that were widely reported by Hebrew media outlets Wednesday.
“It could take long weeks. The girls in captivity don’t have time to wait for changes in the proposal under discussion,” Barnea was quoted as saying in the closed-door meeting.
It was not clear why Barnea focused specifically on the women.
Other people at the meeting backed the need for a swift agreement, the reports said.
“It’s an open wound in society,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev was quoted as saying of the plight of hostages, now in their 10th month of captivity. “We are obligated to the public and to the citizens who were not protected by the IDF and Shin Bet on October 7.
“There is no perfect deal but there is an opportunity here that must not be missed,” Regev reportedly said.
“Women can give birth after nine months and that is a disaster that you cannot recover from,” Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel was quoted as saying, in reference to concerns the female hostages may have been raped in captivity.
Gamliel reportedly pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore threats from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who both oppose any deal that ends the fighting before Hamas is destroyed and who have threatened to topple the government if necessary to prevent one.
“This deal is the ‘Netanyahu deal’ and under your name, and you need to move forward with it all the way and not be concerned with various coalition threats from Ben Gvir and Smotrich,” Gamliel was said to implore the prime minister.
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“If she goes on like that I will leave the room,” Ben Gvir responded and pointed out that Gamliel is not a full member of the top-tier security cabinet.
“The lady is an observer,” Ben Gvir said. “It is about time that you put her in her place. She doesn’t even represent the positions of Likud and her discourse is unacceptable.”
“Gila, stop,” Netanyahu reportedly told Gamliel while insisting that he was not worried by political pressure. Rather, he asserted, it was Hamas that was feeling the heat.
“Military pressure against Hamas is what will in the end bring the hostages,” he said, reinforcing his oft-stated belief that the military offensive is the most effective way of pushing Hamas into an agreement.
“I oppose a deal that is reckless,” Ben Gvir declared.
Gamliel then retorted that Ben Gvir had said the same thing during a previous deal in November that had secured the release of 105 hostages.
“Even then I was right,” Ben Gvir argued. “Look at how many soldiers fell afterward. Instead of wiping out Hamas, we stopped, and it has cost us.”
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The army has not indicated that the week-long pause in fighting during the previous deal led to more soldier deaths.
The deal currently on the table would see the release of hostages held by Palestinian terror group Hamas in return for some form of ceasefire in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has reportedly hardened Israel’s position in internationally mediated talks for a deal, spurred on by intelligence assessments that Hamas is weary, weakened, and keen to end the fighting. Two key points that the prime minister has seized on are Israel’s ability to directly prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas through tunnels under the Egypt-Hamas border, and preventing Hamas from moving its fighters from southern Gaza to the north by embedding them among Palestinians displaced by the war when they are permitted to return to the north.
The reports said Barnea warned that any attempt to set up a system to monitor who moves north would take long weeks that hostages did not have.
Gallant also warned there was little likelihood the sides could reach an agreement over an apparatus to monitor Palestinians moving from southern Gaza to the north, the Walla outlet reported, citing an unnamed source at the cabinet meeting. The current deal proposal mentions only that Palestinians moving north will do so “without carrying arms while returning,” but doesn’t specify how that will be ensured.
The defense minister also repeated his opinion that Israel could prevent smuggling under the Egypt-Gaza border using monitoring equipment, an option that has reportedly been floated at negotiations talks.
The plight of female hostages was further highlighted Tuesday when the parents of five female IDF soldiers held by Hamas published fresh images of the hostages from the earlier days of their captivity that showed they had suffered physical harm.
Hagit Pe’er, head of the Na’amat women’s rights group, said in a statement that Barnea’s warnings of the danger to the women represented “real alarm bells — the writing is on the wall, and the prime minister cannot say he didn’t know; it’s time that the fate of the girls and all the abductees worry the prime minister more than the threats of his coalition partners.”
According to Channel 12, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi also backed Barnea in urging Netanyahu to advance with the current proposal rather than try to change terms at this stage.
The network reported that security officials told the ministers “the odds of reaching a deal are not bad, and this can happen very soon” as Hamas “is in its most difficult state since the war started.” The officials warned that even the current proposal, if approved without any alterations, could take weeks to finalize, making it even more important to seize the current opportunity for a deal, Channel 12 reported.
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According to Walla, Netanyahu criticized security officials and ministers who have made public statements contrary to his strategy of increased military pressure, warning it weakens Israel’s position in negotiations.
The security cabinet meeting already grabbed headlines with reports earlier in the day that Netanyahu seemingly downplayed the threat hostages face in Gaza.
“We shouldn’t be anxious,” Netanyahu told the meeting, according to the Ynet news site, referring to the drawn-out negotiations for a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza. “Hamas is the one that should be anxious. The hostages are suffering but they are not dying.”
The Prime Minister’s Office did not issue a confirmation or denial of the claim.
Kan news on Wednesday evening quoted Netanyahu differently, reporting that he had said: “We won’t lose our hostages. They’re alive, they’re not dead but their conditions are dire, and so we must do everything to get them out as soon as possible.”
One official who spoke to The Times of Israel anonymously also did not comment on Netanyahu’s statement directly, but said Netanyahu “actually stressed in the cabinet meeting that we need to do everything in order to bring all the hostages home as soon as possible, and this can only be done by increasing the pressure.”
Netanyahu’s ostensible assessment contradicts those of senior ministers in his government.
Gallant has said in recent closed meetings that if a deal isn’t reached in the next two weeks, the abductees’ fate will be “sealed,” according to the Ynet.
According to the outlet, Gallant believes conditions have ripened for a deal with Hamas, but accuses Netanyahu of hindering progress in order to retain the support of far-right elements of the coalition.
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Israel believes that 120 hostages are being held in Gaza — of whom dozens are confirmed by the IDF to be dead.
On Wednesday, an Israeli delegation arrived in Egypt to continue ceasefire talks as Israel and Hamas consider the latest proposal, three Egyptian airport officials said.
International mediators continue to push Israel and Hamas toward the proposal which was initially floated by Israel and promoted by US President Joe Biden at the end of May. The proposal calls for a three-phase deal that would see Israel withdraw from Gaza in return for the hostages and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security convicts held in Israeli prisons. A major sticking point is Israel’s insistence that it have the option to resume the war later so it can continue its declared war goal to destroy Hamas, while the latter is demanding an end to the fighting.
The Israeli delegation includes six officials, the airport officials said without disclosing identities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the arrival with the media.
As reported by The Times of Israel