Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director David Zini recently told the security cabinet that the danger of hostile parties trying to kidnap Israelis and Jews, whether in Israel or abroad, has spiked following the Israel-Hamas War.
Yediot Aharonot first reported the statement, but The Jerusalem Post has received similar indications.
The Shin Bet has not denied the story.
Further, Zini was known to oppose some of the hostage deal proposals during the course of the war, which much of the defense establishment favored, due to his position that Hamas had to be further disarmed and because he viewed releasing thousands of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the hostages as creating greater future dangers.
Price of future danger outweighed losing hostages, Zini calculated
As Zini saw it, the price of future danger from releasing security prisoners and allowing Hamas to continue armed outweighed the price of losing the remaining hostages.
In contrast, his predecessor, Ronen Bar; IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and former chief of staff Herzi Halevi; and Mossad director David Barnea all were in favor of a variety of hostage deals, including at earlier stages than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to sign off on one.
According to Zini, because of the high price that Israel paid to Hamas to get back the hostages from the October 7, 2023, invasion, hostile parties are now more interested than ever in taking Jewish or Israeli hostages.
Zini made the comments during a discussion regarding international travel and airport security.
Curiously, there was no report of any pushback in the cabinet that hostile parties might be deterred by the onslaught that Israel unleashed on Hamas due to the invasion and hostage-taking.
Zamir was not present at the particular meeting.
Prior to October 7, Israel had ceased making large-scale hostage deals because the 2011 Gilad Schalit deal was viewed by many as a failure after many of the Palestinian security prisoners released in the deal perpetrated additional terror attacks.
During the 2011 deal, Israel released over 1,000 security prisoners to receive Schalit back.
However, many Israelis said that the October 7 kidnappings were different because they involved Hamas taking Israeli civilians hostage on a large scale.