Mossad chief Barnea calls for action on hostage deal, says female hostages ‘don’t have time’

Israel’s young female hostages have no time to wait for further negotiations, Mossad Director David Barnea said at a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening, urging the cabinet to push forward with the current hostage deal.

“It could take many weeks. The captured girls have no time to wait for changes to the proposal being discussed,” Barnea noted, according to sources.

Also on Tuesday: Parents of five IDF soldiers arrested in Gaza published images of their daughters from previous captivity, where it is clear that the girls were injured.

Barnea also criticized one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent demands during the negotiations, which reportedly involved ensuring that no armed Palestinians return to the northern Gaza Strip.

“Developing a mechanism to prevent the return of armed terrorists to the north of the Gaza Strip will take many weeks,” Barnea said. His statements were reportedly supported by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Other ministers at the Security Cabinet meeting supported efforts to reach an agreement sooner rather than later.

Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev reportedly said the hostage situation was “an open wound in society,” adding: “There is no perfect deal, but this is an opportunity that should not be missed.”

According to Israel Hayom, Innovation Minister Gila Gamliel told Netanyahu: “This deal is the ‘Netanyahu deal’ and it is in your name. You must see it through to the end and not listen to every threat to the coalition from Ben Gvir and Smotrich.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir reportedly said: “I am against any reckless agreement.”

When Gamliel pointed out that Ben Gvir was against the previous hostage deal, he replied, “Even then I was right.” He claimed that more Israeli soldiers died because of the November hostage deal, a claim that the Israel Defense Forces does not support.

“Instead of destroying Hamas, we stopped, and that cost us dearly,” Ben Gvir claimed.

Gamliel expressed concerns expressed by many that the young female hostages may have been raped during their captivity.

“Women can still have children after nine months, and that is a catastrophe from which there is no turning back.”

Despite recent friction between the prime minister and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, the group expressed support for the agreement in a letter to Netanyahu on Wednesday.

“Shas supports your efforts to release the hostages. We are convinced that the conditions created by the military pressure and targeted assassinations represent the right time for an agreement that will protect Israel’s vital security interests and bring the hostages home,” the group wrote in the letter released to the media.

The party also called on Netanyahu “not to fear the opposing voices in the coalition. We encourage you to continue to act responsibly in the spirit of the unsurpassed imperative of releasing the prisoners.”

Netanyahu declined to commit to pushing forward the existing agreement, but said: “Military pressure on Hamas will ultimately bring the hostages.”

The Prime Minister’s comments were blown up by some hostage families who felt that the Israeli president was downplaying the hostages’ current suffering. He has reportedly escalated Israel’s demands in negotiations following the capture of the Philadelphia Corridor and recent operations aimed at preventing Hamas from establishing itself in central and northern Gaza.