Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met today (Sunday) with representatives of the families of captives and the missing. During the meeting, the minister listened to the relatives and answered their questions, detailing the actions being taken to return the hostages and locate the missing.
The meeting, which took place in the Kiryah, was also attended by Manpower Directorate Head Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, Captives and Missing Envoy Gal Hirsch, Defense Minister Chief of Staff Shachar Katz, Defense Minister Adviser on Captives Lior Lotan, and various professionals in the Defense Ministry. They surveyed the efforts made to locate and learn on the condition of the hostages and the missing and efforts to bring them home.
Defense Minister Gallant meets with families of captives.
Gallant: “This is a psychological game, Hamas is cynically using those we hold dear”
At the end of the meeting, Gallant told representatives of the families that “it was important for me to meet with you and listen to you. Bringing the hostages home and locating the missing is a mission of supreme importance. I have two goals, returning the hostages and winning the war. Everything else – is less important right now. We’ve put our best people from throughout the defense arms on the subject. You all saw what Hamas is, there is nothing more important than bringing back the hostages and defeating Hamas.”
"The various reports of Hamas are a difficult psychological game with the soul of all who are here and of all the People of Israe,” said Gallant, “Hamas is making cynical use of everything we hold dear, they understand the pain and pressure. The ground effort is woven into the effort to return the hostages. If military pressure is not created for Hamas, nothing will go forward.”
“They want to collapse Israeli society from the inside and they are cruelly using the hostages. The military effort is meant among other things to also increase the odds of returning our people. I deal with this issue every day. The hostages and the missing are in my heart and my thoughts, in defense discussions and in decision making. We are dealing with animals, not people. This is a complex journey, with hopes and disappointments. I am determined to win the war, and returning the hostages is part of the victory.”
