Freeing captives is 'Israeli narrative, the ABC of Judaism'

Gallant tells hostage families no deal on the horizon, Hamas hoping for regional war

Terror group is watching escalations with Hezbollah and Iran, has ‘hardened’ its stance, defense minister says — but if Israel can link Lebanon and Gaza to make progress, it will

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits the Nevatim air force base in southern Israel, October 6, 2024. (X video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits the Nevatim air force base in southern Israel, October 6, 2024. (X video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told hostages’ family members that there is no end in sight to the impasse between Israel and Hamas on negotiations to free their loved ones, explaining that Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar is watching the escalations on the Lebanese and Iranian fronts and hoping his long-sought regional war will finally materialize.

“There’s stagnation, and I don’t see progress right now in this period, I’m very sorry to say,” the defense minister told families, as heard in a recording aired by the Hebrew press.

“There’s been a hardening on the part of Hamas,” he said, adding that the terror group is monitoring Israel’s fight against Hezbollah and its ramped-up threats against Iran, and hoping “something will happen that will serve them.”

The comments came some two weeks into an Israeli ground offensive in southern Lebanon against the Hezbollah. The terror group began attacking Israeli military posts and border communities on October 8, 2023, with rockets and fighter drones, declaring its solidarity with Hamas and causing the displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the north. Israel has vowed to make it safe for those residents to return home.

According to the Ynet news site, Gallant told the families on Monday that if an opportunity arose to advance a hostage deal by linking the Lebanese and Gazan fronts, Israel would take it. Until now, Israel has sought to separate the two theaters after a year in which Hezbollah had insisted it would not stop attacking Israel without a deal to end the war in Gaza.

Gallant said, however, that he wasn’t optimistic. “I hope we’ll get somewhere, but for the moment, there is no end in sight,” he told the families, according to Ynet.

Israelis protest, calling for a deal to secure the release of those held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, near the Defense Ministry Headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 14, 2024. Some of the signs read “Deal now!” and note that 101 hostages, living and dead, remain in the terror group’s hands. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Amid the fighting in Lebanon, Iran itself — which sponsors Hezbollah, as well as other proxy terror groups in the region, including Hamas — launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month. Israel has vowed to respond to the attack in force, though according to recent reports has ruled out targeting the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure or its nuclear facilities.

Reports over the weekend, based on internal Hamas documents, said the terror group had originally planned to launch a major invasion in 2022, but delayed it until last October — when thousands of terrorists burst into southern Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages — likely in an effort to recruit Iran and Hezbollah to join in the assault.

The terror group has long hoped for a regional war, uniting various anti-Israel fronts to destroy the Jewish state.

On Monday, Gallant told the hostage families that in addition to Hamas’s hope for a regional war, he didn’t see a deal on the horizon because “due to what’s happening in Gaza, [Hamas] doesn’t have very much to lose.”

Israel has declared Hamas broadly defeated as a fighting force, though it has not set up any civil government to control Gaza in its place. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces launched a new offensive in the northern part of the Strip to disrupt efforts by the terror group to regroup.

This handout picture provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), shows fire and smoke billowing from the site of an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas command center, near tents for displaced people inside the walls of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital complex in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip early on October 14, 2024. (UNRWA via AFP)

For Israel, however, bringing the hostages home is a societal necessity, the defense minister said. “We need that for their sake, but no less for our sake as a society,” he said, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

“It’s the Israeli narrative, the ABC of Judaism. We grew up on that ethos. The state needs to adopt a broader view of the hostage issue, even if it comes at a higher cost [in the event of a deal].”

Gallant’s comments to the hostage families came two days after Mossad chief Ronen Bar went to Cairo for a secret visit with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, to discuss the impasse with Hamas.

According to Ynet, the two men discussed obstacles to a deal, including Israel’s demand to retain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Hostages’ family members asked Gallant on Monday about the issue of the corridor, and he reportedly responded that out of 200 Hamas tunnels in Gaza, 10 are under the Philadelphi Corridor, and all of them have been sealed on the Egyptian side.

Bar and Kamel also reportedly discussed Hamas leader Sinwar, who fell out of contact several weeks ago, even leading to speculation that he was dead.

A sukkah with names of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip is displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, in advance of the Sukkot holiday. October 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

But according to recent reports, the terror leader, considered the architect of the October 7 attack, is still alive, and made contact with Qatar earlier this month.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Sinwar’s “attitude has hardened in recent weeks,” and that American negotiators “now believe that Hamas has no intention of reaching a deal with Israel.”

Meanwhile, Mossad chief David Barnea has continued to speak with mediator Qatar, according to reports in Hebrew media. Israel says it is still seeking new avenues for a hostage deal, and is in continuous contact with Doha, which hosts much of the Hamas terror group’s political leadership.

It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

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