Netanyahu thwarted seven Gaza ceasefire deals, Israeli report finds
Netanyahu thwarted seven Gaza ceasefire deals, Israeli report finds
Over the course of the war on Gaza, Israel has repeatedly put up roadblocks to ceasefire deals with Hamas, even when the Palestinian group accepted its conditions, Israel's Channel 13 investigative programme HaMakor reported on Friday.
According to senior American and Israeli officials interviewed by the programme, Israel blocked a ceasefire agreement on seven occasions during nearly two years of its devastating military campaign against the besieged enclave.
The officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was chiefly responsible, often bowing to pressure from far-right ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department under President Joe Biden, said that at the start of the war in October 2023, Hamas was ready to release "some hostages".
"We have been trying to get through to the government of Israel to tell them that," Miller said, but added that Washington could not "get anyone in there to take us seriously", referring to the Israeli leadership.
Sources close to the prime minister told a member of the Israeli negotiating team, who spoke to Channel 13, that “there will be no deal here, these are ISIS terrorists, and their end is death".
Yoav Gallant, Israel's defence minister at the time, told HaMakor that he had instructed his subordinates: "No one is talking to Hamas", adding that he wanted the group to "come to us" after the Israeli army "put their heads under the water" so "they won't be able to breathe".
Gadi Eisenkot, who served on the War Cabinet, said the government initially made no effort to secure the captives' release, noting that "in the war's goals, there is not a single word about the captives and their return". He added that the first ceasefire in November 2023 came after Netanyahu and Gallant piled up obstacles.
Eisenkot said the deal could have been extended, but the Israeli government refused to move forward unless Hamas committed to releasing the remaining women captives.
"We could have brought back seriously wounded and elderly people alive, who unfortunately were later murdered or killed," he added.
Rafah invasion
According to HaMakor, beginning in January 2024, senior Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, misled the Israeli media about progress towards a deal, even though no understanding with Hamas existed at the time.
Ceasefire talks were held in Paris in January and February, but sources involved in the negotiations told Channel 13 that the government refused Hamas's demand to allow displaced Palestinians to return to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Miller said Israel accepted a US proposal in April 2024, shortly before the ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, for a six-week ceasefire. The plan did not require Israel to end the war but was intended to halt a military operation in Rafah. Netanyahu's insistence that Israel would invade the city regardless, however, complicated the talks.
"You can imagine how much harder it made it to get a deal over the line. Hamas didn't accept the proposal, and they lost the chief motivation to agree to a deal," Miller said.
Israel's invasion of Rafah in May 2024 ultimately caused the negotiations to collapse.
Tailor-made deals
Miller said there was tension between the Biden administration and the Israeli government, but it was publicly downplayed because Hamas tended to harden its positions in such circumstances.
"There were times when we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to reach a deal," he said.
'Netanyahu is lying when he says, "we are ready for a complete deal and an end to the war"'
- Einav Zangauker, mother of an Israeli captive
"But we discussed this among ourselves and decided it wouldn't accomplish anything," Miller added, noting that the US never made any offer to Hamas that was not acceptable to Israel.
A senior Israeli negotiator told Channel 13 that the Biden administration's negotiating style was "relatively soft".
HaMakor reported that every deal between Israel and Hamas "was tailor-made to suit the interests of the Israeli government - in other words, the prime minister's political interests as well".
In May 2024, Netanyahu approved a proposal that would have ended the war, secured the captives' return, and reinstated the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, but he withdrew his support shortly afterwards, according to Eisenkot.
President Joe Biden's speech at the end of that month, in which he outlined the Israeli proposal, was intended, Miller said, to prevent Netanyahu from backtracking.
"We spent the last few months seeing the government of Israel at times trying to sabotage an approach to get to a ceasefire," Miller said. "They were always looking for ways to add conditions or make the terms more difficult."
In the following months, Netanyahu continued to harden his position, including insisting on Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza.
In January 2025, Israel and Hamas signed a two-phase agreement after months of difficult negotiations, during which Israel was reportedly unwilling to be flexible on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, according to HaMakor.
Gallant said the January agreement "is the same as the agreement of July".
"The same agreement, only unfortunately with fewer hostages," he added.
Although the deal was meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire, Miller said the Trump administration "didn't really pressure the government of Israel to stick to the terms and let the prime minister resume the war" when Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire in March.
'Fighting this war for decades'
According to Miller, Netanyahu told former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "We are going to be fighting this war for decades to come. That's the way it's been, that's the way it's going to be."
On Monday, Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal, which, according to Israeli media, met most of the demands outlined by President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Tow days later, however, Israel launched a new assault to seize Gaza City, a move believed to mark the first phase of the full occupation of the Gaza Strip. Hamas has since accused Israel of deliberately ignoring efforts to reach a ceasefire.
The families of captives also accuse Netanyahu of attempting to block the deal.
"Netanyahu has decided to torpedo another deal and seal the fate of 20 captives and 100 soldiers in Gaza City," said Nimrod Cohen, the brother of a captive soldier, during a demonstration in Tel Aviv this week.
"When Hamas wants a partial deal, Netanyahu wants a complete deal - and vice versa."
Einav Zangauker, mother of another captive, Matan Zangauker, said at a separate demonstration: "Netanyahu is lying when he says, 'we are ready for a complete deal and an end to the war'."
"Just like in the last agreement that the Israeli government blew up before it reached Stage B, this time too Netanyahu calculated his political considerations and decided to blow it up.”
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