Gallant’s daughter was first to notify him of unfolding Oct. 7 assault, wife says
Ex-defense minister’s spouse recalls not seeing him for months after deadly Hamas invasion, says he visits more hostage families now that he’s gone back to being just an MK
When then-defense minister Yoav Gallant picked up his phone on the morning of October 7, 2023, it wasn’t a defense official who informed him of the developing Hamas invasion and assault on southern Israel — it was his daughter.
In an interview with Army Radio on Wednesday, Gallant’s wife Claudine Gallant recalled the moment she and her husband learned of the devastating Hamas assault last year, which began at 6:29 a.m. on Saturday, October 7.
“At 6:30 a.m., Yoav was already awake. He was planning to go for a bike ride,” Claudine said. “I remember that the phone rang — it was our daughter, she’s an operations officer in [the Israeli Air Force’s] Shaldag unit.”
“She said ‘Dad, they’re firing at us constantly,'” Claudine recalled. “And he left, and we didn’t see him for months.”
She added that her husband had only received an official phone call regarding the developing events across the Gaza border communities after he had already been alerted by their daughter.
In the months that followed the unprecedented attack — in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, 100 of whom are still being held — and as Israel led a campaign to crush Hamas in Gaza, proponents of a hostage deal regularly protested outside the Gallant family home.
“The demonstrations outside our house were very positive,” Claudine told Army Radio. “We would go down to them, or I would go by myself.”
“From the first day, every family or mother [of a hostage] who asked to speak to us received a response, and Yoav met with a representative from the families every week.”
Calling her relationship with the hostage families “indescribable,” Claudine said that they understood that Gallant “would do anything” to bring their loved ones home.
When there was criticism of the government’s failures surrounding the Hamas assault, she said he accepted that too, and “took responsibility.”
She recalled a visit by Gallant to Kibbutz Nir Oz in January, where he met Reuma Kedem, a bereaved mother and grandmother whose daughter Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, son-in-law Yonatan (Johnny) Siman Tov, their six-year-old twins Arbel and Shachar, and two-year-old Omer were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists who invaded the small community on October 7.
During their meeting, Kedem berated Gallant and the government for failing her and loved ones. Throughout the interaction, Gallant remained silent, allowing her to speak her mind.
Claudine said of the incident that Kedem had “every right” to criticize her husband “because he is part of a system.”
“Yoav doesn’t deny anything, and he has taken responsibility,” she added.
Gallant’s support of a deal with Hamas that would bring about the release of the hostages became a constant point of contention between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As defense minister, Gallant argued that Israel could afford to agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for the sake of the hostages, even if it meant temporarily withdrawing from Gaza and even from strategic positions, while Netanyahu has insisted that an Israeli military presence along key Gaza routes must be maintained in any hostage deal.
The issue came to a head in November when Gallant was abruptly fired from his post and replaced by fellow Likud member Israel Katz.
At the time, Gallant said he believed he had been fired due to three specific demands he insisted on: the need to draft Haredi men into the IDF, the imperative to bring back the hostages from Gaza, and the need for a state commission of inquiry in the October 7 onslaught and the ensuing war.
In the month and a half since his dismissal, Gallant as a regular Likud lawmaker has continued to show unwavering support for the bereaved families and the relatives of the hostages, Claudine told Army Radio.
“He visits a lot of families that he had promised to meet with but didn’t get to before,” she said, adding that he was also “working out a lot — biking and running.”
“He has a lot of meetings, and now he has more time.”
The Times of Israel Community.