While there "are no good deals," Israel is "right to proceed with this deal," Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar reportedly said in a cabinet meeting on Friday night, N12 revealed on Saturday.
Bar told ministers to approve the deal during the deliberation meeting on Friday, which culminated in Israel choosing to accept.
"Hamas is a terror organization that has suffered severe blows and is in shambles," Bar said, adding that "Israel is a strong state."
"Personally, as someone who heads a counterintelligence organization, we are well used to arresting and thwarting terrorists," Bar said, adding that some of the Palestinian prisoners being exchanged for hostages starting Sunday he arrested himself.
"We have a very difficult time releasing terrorists and murderers," he continued.
"Israel, even with a difficult deal, is a strong country - it was right to go for this deal."
"There are no good deals," he concluded.
Mossad chief David Barnea expressed similar views, telling the cabinet that it is "a bad deal, but there is no choice," according to Ynet.
"We must pay this moral debt," he added. "This deal is morally, ethically and humanly correct. It has leverage to continue if Hamas does not fulfill its part. Our mission is to return everyone home and we will not stop until we achieve our goal."
Release of terrorists
At a security cabinet meeting on Friday, Bar told ministers that “82% of those released in the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 returned to terrorism,” and that 15% of them carried out attacks themselves after their release in the deal, or planned the attacks.
He also said that the current release of terrorists is expected to increase the motivation to carry out attacks in the West Bank, Israeli media reported.
According to N12, the National Security Council chair Tzachi Hanegbi also spoke at the meeting, saying that the government should "weight pain against pain: the pain of bereaved families against the pain of hostage families and their fears for the lives of their loved ones."
Otzma Yehudit said the deal was "surrendering to Hamas," and that it would resign from the government.