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’.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.”Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3UK arrests British-Iranian suspect over RAF ‘plot’: What we knowlist 2 of 3Arab party leader forced to withdraw from Israeli electionslist 3 of 3How can Jordan respond to Israel’s escalation across the West Bank?end of listHe 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...