Channel 12 commentator Amit Segal criticized the statements made by Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, former head of the IDF Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters, who claimed on Wednesday that government leaders turned down hostage release deals in the name of what he called “an absolute victory that is a lie.”

“When Nitzan Alon says that ‘absolute victory’ is, in his view, a ‘lie,’ he may be right,” Segal said. “But I know what is not a lie—’total defeat.’ That is exactly the deal that was offered at the time. When Alon says it would have been possible to bring everyone back, he is telling the truth. But at what price?”

“A full withdrawal to the border, with Hamas visible to kibbutz residents, international guarantees that the war won’t resume, and materials for rebuilding Gaza that were supposedly humanitarian but were used for tunnels. In essence, we would have reached a state of total defeat.”

“In my opinion, the Israeli government was entirely justified in rejecting that proposal until it received a deal that was never placed before Nitzan Alon—one in which the IDF is present in nearly 70% of Gaza, Hamas is backed into a corner and has been separated from its sources of support, and Iran is no longer taking care of it. It is not total victory, but it is much closer than what existed before.”

Segal also challenged Alon’s assertion that more hostages could have been brought back alive. “Alon says that 40 hostages could have been saved. That is not true. There is no evidence that that is the number of hostages killed due to military pressure. That number refers to the hostages who were mistakenly shot, the six who were murdered as the IDF approached, and hostages who were murdered on October 7 or afterward. What did he mean to say? That Shiri Bibas and her children could have been saved? Perhaps they could have been—but at the terrible price of total victory for Hamas.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)