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Retired Israeli Major General Nitzan Alon said Israel could have reached an agreement to return all Israeli captives held in Gaza roughly a year before the October 2025 deal, without major consequences for other strategic goals of the war. That is Alon’s retrospective judgment—not proof that an earlier agreement was achievable or that it would have produced the same outcome.
What did Nitzan Alon say?
Speaking at a Washington Institute for Near East Policy webcast around the third anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack, Alon said: “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.” Al Jazeera’s report attributes that assessment to Alon, a retired major general and the Israeli military’s former point person for hostage negotiations. The Times of Israel also reported his remarks from a Washington Institute conversation.
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Alon was comparing the possible earlier endpoint with the agreement reached in October 2025. “A year earlier” is approximate: he did not identify a precise alternative date or say that success at that time was certain.
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What happened in the October 2025 exchange?
Al Jazeera reports that the October 2025 ceasefire and exchange led to the release of 20 Israeli captives held in Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. That is the outcome Alon had in mind when he said Israel might have reached “this point” sooner. Al Jazeera’s account of the exchange gives those figures.
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Why did Alon say an earlier deal mattered?
Alon called the war too long, saying, “We missed it, actually. The war was too long.” He criticized the idea that Israel needed to secure “total victory” before making a deal. His comments argue that an agreement could have returned captives sooner while leaving Israel’s other strategic objectives largely intact; they do not establish what an earlier agreement would have achieved in practice.
Al Jazeera also reported other attributed views on the timing. Former Israeli diplomat Alan Pinkas said a deal was possible soon after the October 2023 attack and described the delay as tragic. Qatar’s prime minister claimed Israeli officials did not entertain an early Hamas proposal involving captive releases and a limited ceasefire. These are competing assessments, not independent proof of the full negotiation history or of what either side would have accepted. Al Jazeera’s report presents those claims.
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What is known—and what remains uncertain?
The Times of Israel reports that 251 people were abducted and taken to Gaza during the 7 October 2023 attacks. Its account provides that figure. The October 2025 exchange came later, but the chronology alone cannot show whether the same agreement could have been secured earlier.
- Established in the reporting: Alon made the retrospective claim; the October 2025 exchange released 20 Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera.
- Not independently established: whether the same deal was feasible roughly a year earlier, whether it would have left other strategic outcomes unchanged, or how many lives an earlier agreement might have saved.
The reports do not provide a full webcast transcript or negotiation documents with which to test the counterfactual. The Times of Israel says Alon discussed political and personal considerations in decision-making, while noting he could not know what was in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mind. His comments therefore should not be treated as verified evidence of any individual leader’s motives. The Times of Israel’s account describes that qualification.
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