From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Israel missed 2 windows for a deal, says former Israeli hostage negotiator; PMO: Lies
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Israeli leaders knew hostages were “being held in very difficult conditions,” says Brig. Gen. (res.) Oren Setter, the former deputy to the IDF’s point man in the negotiations for a hostage-ceasefire deal Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, in an interview with Channel 12.
Setter says the cabinet knew hostages were being held in chains, starved, and physically and emotionally harmed.
“The matters were presented in [cabinet meetings and smaller consultations with the prime minister] clearly,” says Setter.
Setter also charges that Israel missed two “windows” for a hostage deal — in March and July of last year.
Setter quit Alon’s team in October.
The Prime Minister’s Office responds with a statement alleging that “senior officials on the negotiating team say that Setter is lying” and that he has repeatedly leaked details from meetings designed to harm the reputation of Netanyahu. His leaks, says the PMO, “have damaged the negotiations, endangered our hostages, and echoed Hamas’s false propaganda,” and are a criminal offense.
The PMO denies that a deal with Hamas could have been reached earlier.
“As all senior US administration officials have testified time and again, Hamas has refused to negotiate for months and was the only factor that constituted an obstacle to the deal,” claims the statement.
Netanyahu’s office insists that Hamas previously agreed to release only 12-14 living hostages in the first phase, as well as a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. It also says that Setter and other negotiators told Netanyahu that it would be impossible to reach a deal if he presented tougher demands.
“If the Prime Minister had not insisted, at least half of the live abductees would not have been released in phase one,” argues the PMO.
