Released hostage quoted telling ministers: Don’t send soldiers into tunnels; it’s a colossal danger

Channel 12 reports what it says are excerpts from a meeting held last night by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and fellow war cabinet minister Benny Gantz with a small group that included released hostages and relatives of hostages still in Gaza.

The participants urged the ministers to present an Israeli initiative for another hostage release deal.

An unnamed released hostage is quoted saying to the ministers: “There’s no time. Every passing day is terrifying. You have no idea what kind of monsters we are dealing with. If they’re feeling threatened, they will use the captives. They scared us that the IDF would use the Hannibal Directive on civilians, and therefore we were scared when the [IDF] bombings were close. They were so close that we begged them to take us [from the building in which we were held] into the tunnels [for safety], and at one stage they did.

“Don’t go into the tunnels. They are moving around in there in vast numbers. It’s a colossal danger to soldiers and to hostages.”

Gantz replies: “The issue of the hostages has priority. I won’t stay in a place [i.e., in the coalition] where there is a possibility to get something done [in terms of releasing hostages] and it’s not done. First, the hostages have to be returned. We’ll have a lifetime to battle Hamas.”

Another participant says: “[Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya] Sinwar is of no interest.”

Gantz: “We won’t be able to wipe out the idea [of Hamas] except with another, better idea. It’s a long process. Sinwar has entered the pantheon of Islam, as the third warrior. And after him there will be others… But he’s not the story. The story is also to eliminate the idea.”

Another participant: “Why don’t you present a framework [for a deal on further hostage releases]?”

Gantz: “That’s certainly something that we could do.”

Gallant: “There was no framework of ‘all for all’ [as in, all hostages freed in exchange for all Palestinian security prisoners]. There’s a leadership there that has no consideration for its civilians. Its goal is to break Israeli society. I’m prepared to give a lot, but I won’t discuss it publicly…”