Far-right minister blames hostage point man for killings and kidnappings of Oct. 7

By Sam Sokol 2 July 2026, 12:10 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Minister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu attends an Education, Culture and Sports Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 19, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) says former hostage point man Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon is to blame for the killings and kidnappings on Oct. 7, 2023.

“In my view, he is to blame for people being murdered and kidnapped,” Eliyahu tells Army Radio.

“They were murdered because of Nitzan Alon and this approach that allowed terrorists on the fence,” Eliyahu says. “If we had gone along with him, we would now have Hamas on [our border] fences, and then what would have happened? Who would be to blame? Nitzan Alon and his group are to blame for the October 7 massacre.”

Alon, a major general in the reserves, is a former head of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit. He later served in various roles in the West Bank and as the chief of the IDF’s Operations Division. He retired in 2019. Alon began his reserve duty as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations on the morning of the October 7, 2023, attack, during which 251 people were abducted, and was appointed by former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi to head the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters. He left the position in November 2025.

Eliyahu’s comments came after Alon said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza could have ended “at least a year earlier,” hitting back at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who claimed credit this week for the return of all the captives held by terror groups in the Strip.

“In Gaza, we fought a long war that could have been ended at least a year earlier,” Alon said at the Herzliya Conference at Reichman University. “When talking about the return of all the hostages, it should be remembered that around 40 hostages who were abducted alive were killed in captivity, and I do not forget that.”

“In certain cases, with different conduct and decisions, or different negotiations, we might have been able to bring them back alive,” he said.

Smotrich voted repeatedly throughout the two-year war against deals that would have seen the hostages released earlier than they ultimately were. Eliyahu’s Otzma Yehudit party did likewise.