At the start of hostage negotiations in October 2023 there were a dizzying series of reports and rumors about who was responsible for the fate of hostages fate on behalf of the State of Israel’s behalf.
Names such as Gal Hirsch – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointee as Coordinator for the Captives and the Missing; Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar; IDF Commander of the Intelligence Array for Locating the Abducted and Missing Persons Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon; and even former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen were all given potential credit for managing the issue.
As we reached the last stretch of the Israel-Hamas hostage deal on Wednesday, there was no doubt that despite each of these figures making various contributions, the most critical figure was current Mossad Director David Barnea.
Even as incoming US president Donald Trump has tried to take the lion’s share of the credit for the final deal being sealed – and there is no question that he helped pressure both Israel and Hamas to take the final decision to cross the Rubicon – the Arabic version of the deal which was widely published on Wednesday made it plain that Barnea had sewed together a vast majority of the deal, dating back to May 27 and August 16.
Three examples from the deal include provisions for the following:
1) that the Rafah Crossing will be opened for transferring aid and other items “based on the agreements reached in August with Egypt”; 2) that wounded Palestinians can exit Gaza to receive medical care via the Rafah Crossing “according to section 12 of the May 27 agreement”; and 3) that the return of northern Gaza Palestinians via the central Gaza Netzarim Corridor will happen “according to Section 3 or 3b of the May 27 agreement.”
The Jerusalem Post has reported in the past that negotiations in the May-August time period managed to get the most significant concession from Hamas: that it would re-enter negotiations for returning all hostages and begin returning hostages in Phase 1 without requiring an end to the war as a prerequisite to renewing the talks. This achievement requires that some real credit be given to Barnea for his role as the negotiations chief – long before Trump entered the picture.
In terms of the ongoing negotiations since Tuesday: It has been widely reported that Hamas attempted to alter the terms and names of certain Palestinian prisoners due to be exchanged as part of the hostage release.
What is Barnea doing?
As head negotiator, it would fall to Barnea to maneuver between holding Israel’s ground on certain issues, such as when certain Israeli officials leaked that they had refused to return Yahya Sinwar’s body, and when to show tactical flexibility in order to seal the deal on potentially more minor changes.
In general, however, no one has any idea what Barnea is doing.
While a number of Israeli political and defense officials have gone public with their views about the hostage negotiations and how they have personally impacted the negotiations, Barnea has made no fully public comments and has endeavored to stay in the shadows.
From time to time, it has been apparent that he would have preferred it had the government not publicized every time he was sent to Paris, Cairo, Qatar, or elsewhere to conduct talks.
Barnea’s first success was with the incredibly difficult tightrope walk to seal the November 2023 agreement with Hamas, which returned 84 Israeli hostages and 24 foreign hostages.
From a variety of sources and foreign reports, the Post has learned that Barnea is no mere messenger but a true operator in his own right who has maintained discretion on a variety of issues in dispute – and who often has made critical recommendations or taken positions that have decisively influenced the eventual course of the hostage negotiations.
One aspect of what has made Barnea vital is the high esteem in which he is held by the primary players, from Qatar’s leaders and intelligence officials to Egypt’s leaders to CIA Chief William Burns and of course, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Post understands that Qatar’s leverage over Hamas is three-pronged: It hosts some of Hamas’s top “diaspora” leadership; hosts some of Hamas’s leaders’ families; and its banks, at points in time, have held up to 80% of the terror group’s funds.
This has meant that Barnea has invested more energy into Qatari relationships than any other.
Paradoxically, the Post understands that some of Barnea’s strong credibility stems from his reputation for assassination operations and his loud criticism of allowing Qatar to send Hamas funds – whether as Mossad chief or previously as deputy chief.
Those qualities in Barnea mean that Qatari leaders know that when he makes them an offer it is real and concrete, and he is not just a friendly diplomat trying to be smooth.
This has enabled Barnea to be in touch with a variety of key Qatar officials relatively instantaneously at any given time.Also, when many officials put out false leads, saying that Qatar was going to be excluded or that all Hamas officials had been expelled from Qatar, Barnea never encouraged these exaggerations – which have clearly been disproven by the negotiations this week.
One critical point when Barnea had a major role was when he proposed the November 2023 initial exchange for 50 hostages.
Then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar were all against such an offer early on (later they supported it), but crucially, Netanyahu’s close ally Ron Dermer was in favor; as were Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, MK Benny Gantz, and fellow war cabinet member MK Gadi Eisenkot were in favor.
Twice during the week when that initial hostage deal was playing out and Hamas began to try to play games, Barnea shot down the terror group’s attempts to alter what they were “giving” to Israel, wishing to hand over male hostages and dead bodies instead of the agreed-upon female hostages.
It was Barnea’s no-nonsense approach that got that deal back on track. He has been one of the few officials who has never given up on the hostage negotiations, even after they came so close to falling apart in May and August, and it is likely those same skills that are being martialed now to get the current deal over the finish line.
Jesus Christ is King
