Security chiefs, negotiators, US all said blaming Netanyahu for tanking hostage talks
‘There’s no security reason to delay deal,’ Gallant quoted as telling PM, whose office claims that Hamas, rather than the premier, has been introducing new demands to hinder progress
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Senior officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF chief Herzi Halevi, were reported Saturday evening to have told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his insistence on new terms will sabotage the ceasefire-hostage release deal currently under negotiation, prompting the premier to claim that it was Hamas, not he, who was introducing new demands.
Channel 12 news quoted both Halevi and Gallant as accusing Netanyahu of being well aware that the new conditions he is demanding, which have reportedly been included in an updated Israeli proposal, would doom the deal.
The new proposal is said to demand an inspection mechanism be put in place to ensure combatants are not able to move to the Strip’s north; see Israel remaining on the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, during the first phase of the deal; and insist on Israel receiving a list of all living hostages Hamas will release as part of the deal.
None of those demands appeared in an Israeli proposal submitted on May 27, which was then publicly revealed by US President Joe Biden and is vehemently opposed by the premier’s far-right allies.
“There is no security reason to delay the deal. Since we’re speaking candidly, I am telling you that you are making considerations that are not beneficial to the matter,” Gallant was quoted as telling Netanyahu during a top-level security meeting on Wednesday night.
“Regarding Philadelphi, I do not recommend that we turn it into an obstacle or something that prevents us from bringing home from [Gaza] 30 people in the first stage [of the deal], half of them women,” Halevi added.
In response, Channel 12 quoted a “senior source” — the network indicated it was Netanyahu himself — accusing his critics of acting out of political motives.
Netanyahu himself last month added several “nonnegotiable” demands to the hostage deal proposal, including Israeli control over the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim Corridor, which currently splits the Strip in two.
The Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors are not specified as locations where Israeli troops will be allowed to remain, according to the text of the Israeli proposal from May, which has been published in full by The Times of Israel.
In fact, the document calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip including Gaza Valley (Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout).”
Meanwhile, Channel 13 news reported Saturday evening that the United States had conveyed angry messages that Israel has “backed off” from a deal that it itself had proposed. The network quoted unnamed Egyptian sources as saying the assassination of Haniyeh has frozen the talks, but won’t hold them off for long.
“The leaks and false briefings by unknown parties in the media create a false representation to the public,” the Prime Minister’s Office told the Kan public broadcaster on Saturday evening, after it reported that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar had accused the premier of “making changes” to Israel’s proposal in the middle of negotiations.
According to Kan, members of the negotiating team further told Netanyahu that his position regarding the Netzarim corridor would “collapse the deal” and that “we approved a proposal that treats the corridor differently.”
“While Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the outline, Hamas is trying to introduce dozens of changes which effectively cancel it,” Netanyahu’s office responded — asserting that he had “not added anything to the outline and continues to adhere to the basic conditions for Israel’s security.”
“Whoever offers to give in to Hamas’s demands in order to receive applause in [television] studios harms the chances for the release of the hostages and returns us to the reality of [the societal rifts of] October 6,” the PMO claimed, without elaborating on how the arguments reconcile with the absence of Netanyahu’s new demands from the full May 27 proposal.
According to a Friday Channel 12 report on Wednesday night’s top-level meeting, Israel’s security chiefs reportedly urged Netanyahu to utilize the momentum provided by recent strikes on senior Hamas and Hezbollah terror chiefs to seize the opportunity for a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
The meeting took place after the Israeli strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr on Tuesday night and after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday morning; Israel has not taken nor denied responsibility for that attack.
While Mossad chief David Barnea, who has been leading Israel’s negotiations on a deal, reportedly said at the meeting that there is a deal ready and that Israel must take it, Netanyahu shouted down his security chiefs, banging on the table and telling them that they were lousy negotiators — a claim later denied by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“You are weak. You don’t know how to run a tough negotiation. You are putting words in my mouth. Instead of pressuring the prime minister, put pressure on [Hamas Gaza chief] Sinwar,” he reportedly yelled.
Speaking on Kan’s main evening news program on Friday evening, Walla News political correspondent Tal Shalev reported that Netanyahu had planned to ax Gallant when he returned from his visit to the United States, but the dismissal was held up by Hezbollah’s deadly attack on Majdal Shams and the killing this week of two terror chiefs.
She added that there were sources in Netanyahu’s circle who said that after replacing Gallant, the premier plans to also dismiss IDF Chief Halevi and Shin Bet head Bar, to eliminate opposition to the way he is handling the negotiations for the return of hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 and their charges that he’s at risk of sabotaging a deal.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appeared to welcome such a move, tweeting that “if there are senior officials in the security establishment who do not like our policy,” they can resign. By contrast, Education Minister Yoav Kisch of Netanyahu’s Likud party called “to refrain” from axing the defense minister in the middle of a war.
Asked if he would be willing to serve as defense minister in the current government, opposition New Hope party leader Gideon Sa’ar appeared to hint that he would consider it, telling Channel 12 on Saturday evening that he “won’t bind my hands on anything.”
Gallant was already a target of right-wing ire before the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, including from within Likud. Netanyahu fired Gallant in March 2023 after he called for the government to pause its controversial judicial overhaul legislation, but reinstated him a month later amid public outcry.
The spate of reports regarding the security chiefs’ disagreement with Netanyahu came as a high-level Israeli delegation reportedly visited Cairo on Saturday for indirect talks with American and Egyptian negotiators, but returned the same day.
Hebrew media reported that Mossad spy agency chief Barnea, Shin Bet security agency head Bar and Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), held meetings in Cairo with Egyptian Intelligence head Abbas Kamel and senior Egyptian military officials.
Several reports indicated Saturday evening that the meeting had not borne progress. An Israeli source was quoted by the Haaretz daily saying that the talks failed to produce results and that “the very departure of the delegation to Egypt under these circumstances is the only good news.”
Following Saturday’s talks, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of “continuing to delay the deal for the return of the hostages for only political reasons.”
Lapid called on the heads of Israel’s security establishment to “come out and tell the public the truth,” stating that “if the Israeli government has given up on the hostages, it should be honest with the families and stop playing games.”
Biden also appeared to exhibit skepticism regarding Netanyahu’s willingness to reach a deal, telling him during a phone call on Thursday to “stop bullshitting me,” Channel 12 reported.
The network said the outburst came after Netanyahu told Biden that Israel was moving forward with negotiations on a hostage-for-ceasefire deal and would soon send a delegation to resume talks.
