Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the conditions are right for concluding an exchange deal, but Prime Minister Ben Yamin Netanyahu is making it more difficult to reach an agreement.

Galant explained that Netanyahu is trying to obstruct reaching an agreement so as not to lose the Ministers of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

Gallant pointed out that if an exchange deal was not reached with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) within two weeks, this would mean "resolving the fate of the kidnapped people."

For his part, Netanyahu said that he now wants to “concern with the victory over Hamas, and not with other matters,” amid increasing internal talk about failure to achieve the goals of the war, especially the recovery of prisoners.

Netanyahu said that "we achieve the goals of the war by combining political and military pressure," noting that "increasing military pressure leads to Hamas concessions in the negotiations," according to him.