Government officials estimate that the expected appointment of Blue & White party head Benny Gantz to the Defense Ministry in the unity government will have the effect of advancing negotiations with Hamas for the release of IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens, which are currently ongoing, Maariv reports.
The unnamed officials note that Gantz was IDF Chief of Staff during Operation Protective Edge, during which IDF officers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were killed and their bodies seized by Hamas in Gaza, and suggest that Gantz therefore feels a heightened sense of responsibility for seeing that they are returned to Israel. One official stated that the very fact that there are already official contacts between Hamas and the government regarding this issue shows that the government is taking the matter extremely seriously and intends to make concessions in order to conclude a prisoner swap with the terror organization, pointing to a first-ever meeting of its kind between Netanyahu and the Ministerial Committee for the Return of Captives as proof.