In US, Gallant says Israel needs to prioritize hostages’ return over resumption of war

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant tells an audience in New York that Israel needs to prioritize the release of the hostages in Gaza over resuming combat with Hamas, and that the country needs to carry out a commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023 invasion.

Gallant says at the ADL’s annual summit in New York City that he has spent hours with former Hamas hostages who told him that “the most important thing for them is to bring back their friends” still held captive.

Resuming the war with Hamas before securing the release of the remaining hostages will mean “you won’t have hostages” left to save, says Gallant, who was defense minister at the time of the attack.

“A bitter truth is even if we don’t want to fight Hamas we will fight them for a long period of time,” Gallant says. “First of all, bring the hostages, and then go and accomplish the job and Hamas will give us enough reason to do that.”

Gallant advocates for a commission inquiry into Israel’s failings in preventing the Hamas onslaught.

“The most important thing now is how to avoid any phenomena similar to what happened on October 7 in the future,” he says. “In order to do it, you have to learn the lessons and in order to learn the lessons you need to rebrief the Israeli actions.”

“I think that our soldiers, our civilians, those who have been in the battlefield, those who were kidnapped and the wounded, people deserve all the answers and the answers have to be clear,” he says. “The only way is this committee that should be a national committee and I am the first one that is willing to step into the room and to give answers.”