PM said to bar Gallant from holding 1-on-1 discussions with Mossad head on hostages
Netanyahu’s office denies any such limits, but adds war cabinet is only body that ‘outlines policy and decides on the matter of the hostages and those missing’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been preventing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from holding meetings to discuss efforts to secure the release of the hostages remaining in Gaza with Mossad chief David Barnea, without him, Netanyahu, present.
Channel 12 news, citing unnamed government sources, reported that Netanyahu cannot prevent Gallant from meeting with senior military and security officials, but has barred him from including Barnea when the prime minister is not part of the discussion.
On at least two occasions, Gallant has invited Barnea to attend meetings and received messages from Netanyahu’s office that the premier disapproves, according to the report.
The Ynet news site reported that Netanyahu fumed after Gallant ordered Barnea to come and update him immediately after returning from a secret trip to Paris to discuss a hostage release deal, before he had updated the prime minister.
Gallant’s office did not respond to the reported claims.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response to the report that there were no such limitations on Gallant or Barnea.
The PMO added, however, that the war cabinet is the only body that “outlines policy and decides on the matter of the hostages and those missing,” adding that there “is no exception.”
Barnea was heavily involved in the temporary truce agreement brokered by Qatar last month that saw the release of 105 civilian hostages, mostly Israeli women and children, alongside an Israeli-Russian man, Thai nationals and one Filipino national. There are believed to be 129 hostages kidnapped on October 7 — not all of whom are alive — still being held in Gaza, and talks have been picking up in recent days at potentially reaching a renewed deal.
While publicly, Gallant and Netanyahu have professed to be working in lockstep during the ongoing war, cracks in the relationship between the men have still been on display on a handful of occasions.
Reports have indicated that Gallant pressed heavily to have the IDF launch a major campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon at the outset of the war, but that Netanyahu opposed and ultimately thwarted the idea.
A few weeks ago, the pair held separate press conferences minutes apart in the same building in Tel Aviv despite holding joint press availabilities several times both before and afterward.
Asked about it at the time, Netanyahu replied: “I suggested to the defense minister tonight to hold a joint press conference. He decided what he decided.” Gallant’s office responded at the time that “sometimes we hold press conferences together and sometimes separately.”
Netanyahu infamously fired Gallant earlier this year after the defense minister expressed public disapproval of the government’s rush to pass contentious judicial overhaul legislation. The firing set off an uproar among the public, including unprecedented spontaneous mass protests and disorder, and the prime minister quietly retracted the firing, leaving Gallant in his post.
