Washington (QNN)- A former senior US official has said that ICC-wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a captive exchange and ceasefire deal in Gaza in 2024 by "so many of his own conditions", which prevented an agreement for "another six months".
Phil Gordon, who served as national security adviser to former US Vice President Kamala Harris from March 2022 to January 2025, made the remarks in a post on X on Saturday.
“Netanyahu instead added so many of his own conditions - against the advice of his own security chiefs - that the deal became impossible for another six months,” Gordon wrote.
He said nearly 9,000 more Palestinians were killed in that period and more Israeli captives died due to Israeli attacks.
Gordon said the added Israeli demands included keeping forces along Gaza’s entire border with Egypt and a new mechanism to screen Palestinians returning north.
Both were dropped in the deal finally concluded in January 2025 which was later violated by Israel.
“I would say most of my former colleagues think that President Biden should have put more pressure on Israel to conduct the war differently and end it sooner, and few think that the biggest mistake Biden made was to show daylight with Israel,” he wrote.
His comments follow a Channel 12 interview with Avi Gil, Netanyahu’s military secretary until May 2024, who said that Netanyahu passed up chances to bring captives home alive because of the risk to his political career.
Asked whether some could have been saved, he replied: “We could have.”
Gil also said that Netanyahu had asked him to prepare a document outlining a possible prisoner agreement in 2024, but later ordered him not to present it to ministers after finance minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to bring down the government if a deal was reached.
Netanyahu denied the accusations, calling Gil's comments "an attempt to obscure the simple and painful truth about his failure".
