{"id":519702,"date":"2026-07-01T09:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/519702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T09:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:27:10","slug":"ex-negotiator-slams-benjamin-netanyahu-bezalel-smotrich-says-hostages-died-due-gaza-deal-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/519702\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-negotiator slams Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, says hostages died due Gaza deal delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israel-Hamas War<\/a> could have ended a full year earlier, maybe even achieving more from Hamas in terms of disarmament, former lead hostage negotiations coordinator Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Alon said that by prolonging the war unnecessarily, many Israeli soldiers and up to around 40 hostages might have died unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

Throughout the two years that Alon was the lead coordinator for returning the Israeli hostages held by Hamas since October 7, 2023, until October 2025, there were times that he pushed to cut earlier deals, but was denied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>.
\u00a0
Responding to a recent statement by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich that he was most responsible for returning the Israeli hostages, saying all were returned, because of his aggressive position regarding the war and Hamas, Alon pushed back hard.<\/p>\n

“What can I say about this statement? Even when we talk about having returned all of the hostages: about 40 hostages who were taken alive were killed and murdered, and some of them by our own power, others by their abductors, and some could not survive the conditions [of captivity]. Some other different decisions and negotiations could have returned them alive; that is final, and we should not forget it,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"PalestiniansPalestinians inspect damaged vehicles at the site of an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, June 22, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)War continued unnecessarily, no credit for Netanyahu, Smotrich in hostage deal<\/p>\n

He added that Smotrich cannot take credit for the deals and objected to multiple of them.<\/p>\n

Further, he rejected the idea that Netanyahu, Smotrich<\/a>, and the cabinet should be credited for their insistence on returning all the hostages rather than interim partial deals.<\/p>\n

Rather, he said that Netanyahu and the broader cabinet, along with Smotrich, had earlier insisted on partial deals so they could continue all the way until their “fake absolute victory”\u00a0was not a serious position.<\/p>\n

“When the alternative of partial deals was put on the table before the cabinet, and the issue was partial versus a broader agreement, the choice [up until fall 2025] was a partial agreement to allow for continuing the war,” said Alon.<\/p>\n

US, Trump intervention credited for ending Gaza War<\/p>\n

In other words, Alon said that Netanyahu and the government opted against full deals until fall 2024, when Hamas’s willingness to pursue more partial deals forced them to accept a full deal as their only option to extend the war.<\/p>\n

He concluded that only the intervention of US President Donald Trump<\/a> forced Netanyahu and the government to end the war; otherwise, they would have continued, while still failing to achieve the disarmament of Hamas.<\/p>\n

Regarding Alon’s statements about earlier points to resolve the war, top Israeli officials told the Jerusalem Post both in May 2025 and July-August 2024 that a return of the hostages could have been achieved if Netanyahu and the government had been willing to end the war.<\/p>\n

Some others involved in hostage negotiations have disputed this account, noting that even if Netanyahu was trying to continue the war, Hamas also at multiple points missed opportunities to end the war when it believed it could obtain better terms,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israel-Hamas War could have ended a full year earlier, maybe even achieving more from Hamas in terms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,1982,54,41594,50,3639,59,60,9093,42,12428,62,1031,46,43,5854,40,38,41,39,2201],"class_list":["post-519702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trumps-gaza-deal","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-ceasefire","tag-gaza-hostages","tag-gaza-war","tag-gaza-israel","tag-headlines","tag-hostage","tag-hostage-deal","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-security-cabinet","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}