Israel could’ve ended Gaza war, freed captives sooner: Israel ex-negotiator

For context, a former Israeli general who was the army's point person for hostage negotiations at the beginning of the Gaza war notes that a agreement to return all Israeli captives could have been achieved "much earlier" than October 2025 but it was prolonged unnecessarily.

Key points

• Alon referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that Israel must achieve "total victory" before signing a accord as "false".
• Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, former Israeli diplomat Alan Pinkas remarked Netanyahu had stalled the end of the war.
• He called the October 2025 "ceasefire" a "strategic achievement" that has since curbed Hamas's military power.
• "A deal was possible very soon after the Hamas attack in October 2023, " he remarked.
• Alon's latest comments come less than a month before Israel's October 27 legislative election, with polls showing the political battle remains at knife-edge.

"I think that we could this point much earlier, maybe a year earlier or so, without any major implication on the other strategic goals of the war, " Major General Nitzan Alon remarked on Friday. "We missed it, actually. The war was too long."

He was speaking during a Washington Institute for Near East Policy webcast marking three years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel preceding the genocidal war that has killed over 74, 000 Palestinians.

He called the October 2025 "ceasefire" a "strategic achievement" that has since curbed Hamas's military power. But he remarked it could have been secured much sooner with "maybe some hostages that got killed or murdered during their captivity back home alive."

Hamas and Israel carried out a prisoner exchange accord in October 2025 under a ceasefire agreement that saw the release of almost 2, 000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails and 20 Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip.

"We could have – and we should have – shortened the war, brought all the hostages back, maybe a year earlier, and moved forward and maybe, you know, saved thousands of lives on both sides, " Alon informed the panel discussion organised by the United States think-tank.

When he additionally criticised Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, saying Smotrich had resisted some of the agreements proposed at various stages and therefore could not take credit for the return of all the captives, alon had created similar comments in July. 'Not just a missed opportunity, it's tragic'.

"It took almost two years before the hostages were returned, so it's not just a missed opportunity, it's tragic."

Earlier this week, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani remarked Israeli office-holders "rejected to entertain the idea" of a Hamas proposal to release all captives in exchange for a limited ceasefire shortly after the attacks.

Al-Thani remarked Doha reached out to Israeli office-holders "on day one. Our message was particularly clear. They are asking for a window of ceasefire to obtain the civilians out, " Sheikh Mohammed stated in an interview with Piers Morgan. "And basically, they were not interested to engage in the idea."

Pinkas remarked Alon's comments were unlikely to influence the outcome of the vote as polls already "reflect public anger" over the Netanyahu government's failure to prevent the Hamas attacks.

In practice, a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz claiming that United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had cautioned Netanyahu concerning a feasible attack additionally sparked outrage throughout Israel last month.

Netanyahu remarked he would sue the outlet over its report. It he described as "fabricated" and "false".

Taken together, the developments around israel could've ended Gaza war, freed captives sooner: Israel ex point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.