Netanyahu avoided announcing localized Gaza ceasefires for political reasons, former spox. says
Dostri admitted that the decision regarding the localized ceasefires was Netanyahu’s, and said that the prime minister may decide to give a video statement later on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu preferred that the IDF announce the new localized “humanitarian” ceasefires in the Gaza Strip rather than announce it himself since it is “not something widely accepted by large segments of the public,” Netanyahu’s former spokesperson Dr. Omer Dostri said in an interview on Kan Reshet Bet radio on Sunday morning.
“The provision of aid is not something widely accepted by large segments of the public. It’s possible to discuss it—the question is, by whom. Since the IDF is the one actually responsible, it makes sense that it would be the one to ‘spread the word,” Dostri said.
Dostri admitted that the decision regarding the localized ceasefires was Netanyahu’s, and said that the prime minister may decide to give a video statement later on Sunday in order to explain the decision.
Dostri acknowledges that PMO didn’t have ‘functioning’ public diplomacy unit
Dostri, who served as Netanyahu’s chief spokesperson beginning in August 2024 until three weeks ago (July 5), acknowledged in the interview that the Prime Minister’s Office did not have a “functioning” public diplomacy (“Hasbara”) unit, and therefore Israel could not effectively counter what he claimed were “false” campaigns about the situation in Gaza.
Palestinians gather as they seek aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. (credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
Asked why, besides during Operation Rising Lion against Iran, the prime minister refrained from holding any interviews during the war on Israeli TV channels other than the friendly Channel 14, Dostri said that the prime minister had had negative experiences in the past in such interviews and therefore preferred to avoid them.
The decision itself regarding the localized ceasefire was made over the weekend without the input of far-right National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir since the prime minister knew that Ben-Gvir would oppose it, Ben-Gvir claimed in a statement earlier on Sunday.
“On Saturday night, I was informed by a source in the Prime Minister’s Office that during the Sabbath, a security consultation was held without me … in which it was decided to increase the quantities of ‘humanitarian’ aid entering Gaza,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X.
Ben-Gvir said that such a plan “is a surrender to Hamas’s deceitful campaign” and “endangers the lives of IDF soldiers.”
In response to Netanyahu’s statement on Friday that Israel and the US were considering “alternative options” for bringing hostages home, Ben-Gvir added that “it turns out that the ‘alternative way’ is to surrender to Hamas and its deceitful campaigns and to increase humanitarian aid that reaches it directly.”
“This path distances the return of the hostages and, above all, distances the absolute victory in the war. The only way to win the war and bring back the hostages is to completely stop the ‘humanitarian’ aid, conquer the entire Gaza Strip, and encourage voluntary migration,” Ben-Gvir wrote.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was also not part of the decision regarding the localized ceasefires, a spokesperson said in response to a query.
