Former ISA official Shalom Ben Hanan spoke Wednesday morning about the crisis which arose after Hamas announced that it would delay the release of additional hostages.
In an interview with 103 FM Radio, Ben Hanan explained that the security echelon is presenting a balanced position, but needs to avoid sending conflicting messages.
"I think that in general, the defense echelon is presenting a balanced picture, which on one hand proposes giving Hamas an ultimatum, but at the same time the defense echelon must find the golden path so as not to crush the deal."
"The story with the conflicting announcements - in my opinion, that's problematic. The story here is so complex, I would have preferred a single stable announcement, but it's really not easy to criticize from the outside."
On Tuesday, two conflicting reports came out, one of which claimed that all hostages to be released in the first stage must be released by Saturday, and the other claiming that all hostages still in Gaza must be released by Saturday.
In Ben Hanan's opinion, "Israel has the means to pressure Hamas, and needs to use them. It could be that the things that we do will not have an immediate effect. We took risks to free the hostages, so these processes, if they are necessary, will be much longer."
"If Hamas tests our boundaries, then it seems there won't be a choice," he added. In his opinion, however, the way to handle the situation is through "conquering land and controlling it - not like we did earlier."