Hostage deal ‘not a failure, but it came at a cost,’ Netanyahu spox tells media outlet

The Biden administration “placed pressure on Israel, giving Hamas a tailwind. Only recently have we begun reversing that trend,” the spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Omer Dostri, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the hostage release deal was not a failure but admitted it came at a price.

Just a few days before Netanyahu’s departure to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump, Dostri said, “I wouldn’t call the deal a failure, but it isn’t perfect – it came at a cost.”

He emphasized that the security cabinet’s main priority is the release of the hostages. “Once that is achieved, we will ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza,” he said.

According to the agreement, 33 Israeli hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal, mainly women, children, the sick, and the elderly.

In exchange, 735 Palestinian prisoners will be set free from Israeli jails, some of whom have killed Israelis and are serving life sentences.

When the Post asked why Israel seems to be paying a higher price to release these hostages than it did in November 2023, when 100 hostages were freed, Dostri replied:

“In the early days of the war, Hamas was under tremendous pressure – the Biden administration and the international community were fully behind Israel,” he explained.

“Since then, the Biden administration stepped back and placed pressure on Israel, giving Hamas a tailwind. Only recently have we begun reversing that trend, applying military pressure in northern Gaza, while Trump has also pressured Hamas,” Dostri added.

He said one of the biggest mistakes the Biden administration made was publicly displaying a shipment of weapons to Israel prior to the IDF entering Rafah.

“I see that as a moral disgrace and a serious operational mistake,” he said. “If the goal is to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, how do you justify withholding arms from Israel?”

Regarding US President Donald Trump, Dostri said, “His statements continue to show strong support for Israel. There are people in his administration who are very pro-Israel, very hawkish in our favor. We expect a sympathetic government and are happy to cooperate – we can achieve great things with him in the Middle East.”

Dostri said that when Netanyahu meets with Trump in the Oval Office, the two are likely to discuss the ongoing ceasefire and hostage negotiations, Iran, the potential normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, and Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans to Egypt and Jordan during Gaza’s rebuilding phase after the war.