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Link to our previous interview with Yoav Gallant:
https://youtu.be/aPEPztvsJGQ
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:28 Reflecting back on taking in the trauma of Israeli hostages being taken
05:18 What were the real-time reactions to the situation at the time?
08:21 Looking back on previous hostage situations in Israel and Israeli policy in dealing with these situations
16:31 Reaction to interview with Eli Sharabi
22:00 Gilad Shalit and the high price of a hostage deal
26:44 Early assessments that no hostages would come back alive
34:49 Early intelligence about the Bibas family
37:24 Operations that were planned but not executed
41:22 Getting the hostages back vs Destroying Hamas: paradoxical objectives of the war
48:10 Negotiations prior to Nasrallah’s death and Iran’s weakened state
59:10 Intelligence on the hostages’ conditions
01:03:20 How could Hamas’s takeaway from the war be anything other than the merit of taking Israeli hostages?
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Last month we published the first in a series of interviews with former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, telling the story of the October 7th War from his unique vantage point. Our first interview, “Four Days in October,” focused on the intense deliberations that took place behind closed doors regarding the possibility of Israel responding to its stronger adversary first, Hezbollah in Lebanon, rather than Hamas in the Gaza Strip. If you have not heard or seen that interview, you can find it here.
For the second interview in our series with General Gallant, we focused on the most difficult aspect of this war - the hostages in Gaza and the efforts to bring them home.
Yoav Gallant served as Israel’s Defense Minister from 2022 until 2024. He was fired by Benjamin Netanyahu twice in those two years, first in 2023, when massive protests in Israel led Netanyahu to reverse his decision, then again in November of 2024. Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party. His military career spans five decades, beginning in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13, and serving as chief of the IDF’s Southern Command during Operation Cast Lead, an early war with Hamas that lasted from late 2008 to early 2009.
CREDITS:
ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor
MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor
YARDENA SCHWARTZ - Executive Editor of Ark Media
GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern
YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer
AMIEL SHAPIRO - Voice Actor