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

Retired General Nitzan Alon says more captives could have been returned alive and a deal was possible ‘maybe a year earlier’.

Anger has grown in Israel over the failure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to prevent the October 2023 Hamas attack [File: Amir Cohen/Reuters]

A former Israeli general who was the army’s point person for hostage negotiations at the beginning of the Gaza war says that a deal to return all Israeli captives could have been achieved “much earlier” than October 2025 but it was prolonged unnecessarily.

“I think that we could [have gotten to] 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 said on Friday. “We missed it, actually. The war was too long.”

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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.

Alon referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Israel must achieve “ total victory ” before signing a deal as “false”.

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

Hamas and Israel carried out a prisoner exchange deal in October 2025 under a ceasefire agreement that saw the release of nearly 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 told the panel discussion organised by the United States think-tank.

Alon had made similar comments in July, when he also criticised Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, saying Smotrich had opposed some of the agreements put forward at various stages and therefore could not take credit for the return of all the captives.

‘Not just a missed opportunity, it’s tragic’

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, former Israeli diplomat Alan Pinkas said Netanyahu had stalled the end of the war.

“A deal was possible very soon after the Hamas attack in October 2023,” he said.

“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 said Israeli officials “rejected to entertain the idea” of a Hamas proposal to release all captives in exchange for a limited ceasefire soon after the attacks.

Al-Thani said Doha reached out to Israeli officials “on day one … Our message was very clear. They [Hamas leaders] are asking for a window of ceasefire to get the civilians out,” Sheikh Mohammed said in an interview with Piers Morgan. “And basically, they [the Israelis] were not interested to engage in the idea.”

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.

Pinkas said 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.

A report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz claiming that United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had warned Netanyahu about a possible attack also sparked outrage across Israel last month.

Netanyahu said he would sue the outlet over its report, which he described as “fabricated” and “false”.

退役将军尼赞·阿隆表示，原本可以有更多的俘虏活着获释，而且“也许一年前”就有可能达成协议。

以色列民众对总理内塔尼亚胡政府未能阻止2023年10月哈马斯袭击事件感到愤怒。[图片：Amir Cohen/路透社]

一位曾在加沙战争初期担任以色列军方人质谈判负责人的前以色列将军表示，释放所有以色列俘虏的协议本可以“早得多”在 2025 年 10 月之前达成，但却被不必要地拖延了。

“我认为我们本可以更早达到这个阶段，也许提前一年左右，而不会对战争的其他战略目标产生重大影响，”尼赞·阿隆少将周五表示。“实际上，我们错过了最佳时机。战争持续时间太长了。”

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名单之二：三位阿拉伯政党领袖被迫退出以色列选举

问题 3（共 3 题）：约旦如何应对以色列在西岸的升级行动？

他在华盛顿近东政策研究所举办的网络直播活动中发表了讲话，该活动旨在纪念哈马斯于 2023 年 10 月 7 日袭击以色列三周年，那次袭击引发了种族灭绝战争，导致超过 74,000 名巴勒斯坦人丧生。

阿隆称以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡关于以色列必须在签署协议前取得“全面胜利”的说法是“错误的”。

他称2025年10月的“停火”是一项“战略成就”，此后遏制了哈马斯的军事力量。但他表示，如果“一些在被俘期间遇害的人质能够活着回家”，这项协议本可以更早达成。

2025 年 10 月，哈马斯和以色列根据停火协议进行了换俘，释放了近 2000 名被关押在以色列监狱的巴勒斯坦人和 20 名被关押在加沙地带的以色列人质。

“我们本可以——而且我们应该——缩短战争，或许提前一年就把所有人质救回来，继续前进，也许还能挽救双方成千上万人的生命，”阿隆在美国智库组织的小组讨论会上说道。

阿隆在 7 月份也发表过类似的评论，当时他还批评了以色列财政部长贝扎莱尔·斯莫特里奇，称斯莫特里奇反对在不同阶段提出的一些协议，因此不能将所有被俘人员的获释归功于自己。

“这不仅仅是错失良机，简直是一场悲剧。”

以色列前外交官艾伦·平卡斯周五在接受半岛电视台采访时表示，内塔尼亚胡拖延了战争的结束。

他说：“在哈马斯于 2023 年 10 月发动袭击后不久，就有可能达成协议。”

“人质获释用了将近两年时间，所以这不仅仅是错失良机，更是一场悲剧。”

本周早些时候，卡塔尔首相谢赫·穆罕默德·本·阿卜杜勒拉赫曼·本·贾西姆·阿勒萨尼表示，以色列官员“拒绝考虑”哈马斯提出的以释放所有俘虏换取有限停火的提议，该提议是在袭击发生后不久提出的。

阿勒萨尼表示，多哈“从一开始就与以色列官员接触……我们的信息非常明确。他们（哈马斯领导人）要求停火一段时间，以便让平民撤离，”谢赫·穆罕默德在接受皮尔斯·摩根采访时说道。“但基本上，他们（以色列人）对这个想法不感兴趣。”

阿隆发表最新评论距离以色列 10 月 27 日的立法选举不到一个月，民调显示，这场政治斗争仍然势均力敌。

平卡斯表示，阿隆的言论不太可能影响投票结果，因为民调已经“反映出公众对内塔尼亚胡政府未能阻止哈马斯袭击的愤怒”。

上个月，以色列《国土报》的一篇报道声称，阿联酋总统谢赫·穆罕默德·本·扎耶德·阿勒纳哈扬曾警告内塔尼亚胡可能发生袭击，该报道也在以色列引发了强烈愤慨。

内塔尼亚胡表示，他将起诉该媒体，因为他称该报道是“捏造的”和“虚假的”。