Hamas Misdirected the Prime Minister's Office Before Massacre

Kann News reporter Michael Shemesh revealed that the Hamas terror organization succeeded in lulling the Prime Minister’s Office into a false sense of security, creating a false perception of an emerging prisoner swap and causing the Israeli government to think that it is uninterested in escalation in the south.

According to Shemesh’s report, energetic negotiations have been taking place in recent months to free the Israelis being held captive in Gaza – Goldin, Shaul, a-Sayid, and Avera Mengistu. The negotiations were conducted at the highest level with the Prime Minister’s Office and Netanyahu via a number of mediators.

Shemesh notes that Hamas made Israel feel the deal was progressing significantly, at the same time that the terror organization prepared the largest and most murderous attack in the country’s history.

According to the report, the negotiations themselves took place primarily in the last two years and had picked up pace in recent months. The point man for the negotiations in the Prime Minister’s Office was Netanyahu’s military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil.

It should be mentioned that for most of this period, there was no official Prime Ministerial Envoy for the captives issue. Yaron Blum who served in that role retired a year ago, and Netanyahu did not replace him until now with Gal Hirsch. This means that the negotiations were run by Netanyahu via his military secretary.

The Prime Minister’s Office responded that “We will not address the issue of the captives and the missing.”