Defense Minister Yoav Gallant defended the decision to release the bodies of three terrorists last week, as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir continued to rail against the government’s defense policies.
“The corpses of terrorists are not really an asset that influences terrorist groups, with the exception of some very specific cases that are connected to Hamas,” Gallant explained in Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “Hamas’s decisions in Gaza are not connected to the body of a terrorist from a small group in Judea and Samaria, and it has no influence. They’re not interested.”
“Hamas’s decisions in Gaza are not connected to the body of a terrorist from a small group in Judea and Samaria, and it has no influence. They’re not interested.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
The remarks came days after Gallant's decision to return the bodies of three terrorists from the "Lions' Den" group, who shot at IDF soldiers in Samaria in March.
Ben-Gvir called the return of the bodies "a mistake that will cost us dearly," and cited it, together with allowing a Jordanian member of parliament who smuggled weapons to Israel to be tried in his home country, as reasons that his party would boycott the cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Gallant said: “I don’t get excited over a minister that attacks me; most of them have seen fewer terrorists’ bodies than I have.
“The problem with these statements is that they hurt the families of missing soldiers and give them a mistaken sense that we are not doing enough for them,” he added.
Hamas has held the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul in Gaza since 2014, as well as living Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
Past Israeli governments have been inconsistent on the issue of returning terrorists' bodies and the High Court of Justice has also reached varied rulings on the matter.
Netanyahu says 90% of Palestinian casualties are terrorists, praises IDF
Earlier in the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel has the best record in the world of avoiding civilian casualties.
Israel arrested over 110 terrorists since the beginning of 2023, the prime minister stated.
Stopping terrorists “require complex actions, including entering the heart of cities with minimum harm to our forces and bystanders,” Netanyahu said. “Indeed, 90% of the Palestinian casualties are terrorists.”
“I doubt if any other army or security force is able to have such a result in cramped battle arenas rife with civilians, but our forces do it and they deserve praise,” he added.
Netanyahu thanked the IDF for killing the terrorists who murdered Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee last month.
“The long arm of Israel will reach whoever tries to harm our citizens,” he said.