Gallant hints: This is who leaked the hostage deal

Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that details of the hostage deal were leaked by a party who wanted to break the negotiations. According to him, revealing the minimum number of hostages Israel was prepared to accept allowed Hamas to understand Israel's red line and led to the collapse of the talks.

The remarks came in a conversation with Col. (res.) Attorney Lior Lotan at the annual international counter-terrorism conference at Reichman University.

Gallant recounted that after the hostage deal in November 2023, Israel tried to advance another agreement. According to him, attempts were made to use the withdrawal from Shifa and later from Khan Yunis to create leverage that would enable a deal, but the moves did not succeed.

In the next stage, he said, a withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor was proposed. Gallant said the IDF Chief of Staff, Nitzan Alon, the Shin Bet chief, the Mossad chief and other senior officials supported the move. Gantz, Dermer, Eisenkot, Deri and Gallant himself also pushed to advance it.

"The prime minister did not want it, but in the end, mainly out of fear of what the public would say if it turned out he did not agree to it, he allowed it to happen," Gallant claimed.

He then revealed the numbers that were set in the mandate for the negotiating team. According to him, a document that passed between Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and Gallant established that the target would be the release of 33 living hostages, with a minimum number of 18 for the deal to go through.

"Meaning if there are 18, you do a deal; if there are 17, you don't do a deal," he explained.

According to Gallant, after the discussion, Bezalel Smotrich went in to see the prime minister and later said in the cabinet that Israel was about to release prisoners in exchange for 18 hostages. Gallant did not explicitly name the leaker, but presented the sequence of events and said: "It's clear to you that the numbers are the heart of the secret in negotiations. If the other side knows what your bottom line is, it's obvious what happens."

According to him, Netanyahu called him later and asked to cancel the decision following criticism in the media. Gallant said Hamas's response came within two days.

"Two days later we saw Sinwar's response, and the basis says, they're demanding 33 hostages from us, why give 33 hostages when they themselves say they're willing to accept 18, and the deal broke," he said.

Gallant concluded with a sharp accusation: "This deal was leaked by someone who had an interest in breaking the negotiations. Connect all the dots, and you'll reach a conclusion." According to him, the deal plus the release of 110 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment was identical to the interim deal that came up in January 2025.