Gal Hirsch, the coordinator of the prisoners and missing persons, said in an interview withFellow at Israel Hayom, Because Yahya Sinwar planned to keep the hostages as an asset that would yield him a 10-year return.
Yes, 10 years of negotiations. "We classified the abductees as Ron Aradim, those who are feared to never be found; and Kasmans - abducted in a known location but with low chances of rescue; Regev and Goldwassers - martyrs; or rulers, those who are returned in a deal.".
When Hirsch took on the most difficult task ever assigned to him in public service, there were an unprecedented number of abductees and missing persons, which was not yet known at the time.
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In fact, Hirsch did not specify the number of abductees until the end of November, so as not to give Hamas the opportunity to claim that the abductees were missing altogether. "On the evening of October 8, I understand that we are missing 3,200 people. In the second week, 1,060. Later, 400," says Hirsch.
He said that during the war there was an unfathomable gap between the depth of intelligence and the slim chances of rescuing the hostages. "There were cases when our unit was at the door, but we knew we wouldn't get the seconds essential for the rescue, so we gave up.".
The war mixed the types. "There was no modern event of a maneuvering army with six divisions, with hundreds of hostages being held in dozens of locations on the battlefield. When the maneuver began, on October 26, we worked from a makeshift office that was arranged for us in one of the WeWorks, and all the families ran to us and shouted, 'What are you doing to them?' We always insisted on the order: a rescue and a maneuver, without giving up either one.".
The meeting with the Qataris had taken place shortly before. Hirsch called the mobile phone of a senior Qatari official, who offered his country's brokerage services. "How do I know you know how to deliver the goods," he asked.
""Tell me what you need," the Qatari replied. "Get me some hostages," Hirsch replied. He went down south to Gaza to oversee the pilot of the liberation. He waited in the room of the kidnapped brigade commander, the late Assaf Hammi, a former Hirsch commander. The next day, Yehudit and Natalie Raanan were released. Then the kidnapped Yocheved Lipshitz and Nurit Cooper arrived via Egypt.
Qatar accepted the role of mediator.
""What killed me?" Hirsch tells the staff, "The huge gap between what I see in the material and in the negotiation rooms. Inside they demanded complete surrender and outside they broadcast that Israel was the one refusing. The peak was during Ramadan: Sinwar planned 'Al-Aqsa Flood 2,' but we were accused of torpedoing a deal by refusing a ceasefire during the fast.".
On Thursday morning, the headquarters was officially closed. Hirsch will be left with details that he will carry, like his colleagues, for the rest of his life.
By virtue of their role, they saw every video, watched every atrocity, heard every testimony: "I've had people die in my hands, I've killed and almost been killed, but I've never seen anything so atrocious, anything so biblical.".
