Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs pushed back Monday against claims by senior Israeli security officials that all of the hostages could have been brought home much earlier in the Gaza war, arguing that such an agreement would have required Israel to completely withdraw from Gaza, abandon the Philadelphi Corridor and guarantee that it would not resume the war.

Fuchs, who also serves as secretary of the Security Cabinet, said he had participated in the most restricted hostage-negotiation discussions since the Oct. 7 massacre and was therefore personally familiar with the proposals and conditions that were considered behind closed doors.

“As Cabinet Secretary and Secretary of the Security Cabinet, I participated in all of the most restricted hostage negotiations since October 7 and assisted in the ongoing effort led by the prime minister, with the help of President Trump, until the return of all the hostages,” Fuchs wrote.

His remarks came amid renewed debate over whether Israel passed up opportunities during the war to secure the release of all the captives. The controversy has resurfaced during Israel’s national remembrance period, with former senior defense officials criticizing decisions made by the political leadership during the hostage negotiations.

Fuchs said he was particularly disturbed to hear such claims coming from security officials who had themselves been present for the sensitive discussions.

“It greatly disturbed me to hear, in the midst of the days of remembrance, claims from senior security officials who were in those discussions that it was possible to return all of the hostages at an earlier stage of the war,” Fuchs wrote.

According to Fuchs, those officials were fully aware that Hamas’s terms for a comprehensive agreement at that stage went far beyond a hostage-prisoner exchange. He said bringing everyone home would have required Israel to end its military campaign and relinquish positions that the government considered essential to preventing Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities.

“Those senior officials know very well that the return of all the hostages at an earlier stage was conditioned on a complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including from the Philadelphi Corridor, with international guarantees not to return to the war, and the significance would have been victory for Hamas and defeat for Israel after the October 7 massacre,” Fuchs wrote.

The statement amounted to a direct rebuttal of arguments made by former defense officials, including former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, that opportunities existed earlier in the war to secure the release of additional hostages and that decisions by the government delayed a broader agreement.

The dispute over the Philadelphi Corridor — the narrow strip along the Gaza-Egypt border — became one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly argued that maintaining Israeli control there was essential to preventing Hamas from rearming through smuggling routes from Egypt.

Critics of the government countered that the insistence on retaining forces along the corridor complicated negotiations at crucial moments and placed the hostages at additional risk. The government maintained that abandoning the area without adequate security arrangements could allow Hamas to rebuild and eventually recreate the conditions that led to Oct. 7.

Fuchs himself publicly addressed the issue during the January 2025 hostage agreement. At the time, he said the framework included continued Israeli deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor during its initial phase and preserved Israel’s ability to return to fighting if negotiations over subsequent stages failed to produce terms consistent with Israel’s war objectives.

Monday’s statement, however, focused on earlier proposals for the release of all the hostages, which Fuchs said came with substantially different conditions: complete Israeli withdrawal and guarantees that the war would permanently end.

Fuchs argued that accepting those conditions would have allowed Hamas to survive the war while presenting the Oct. 7 attack as having forced Israel to withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the people abducted during the massacre.

He contrasted that scenario with what he described as the results ultimately achieved under Netanyahu’s strategy.

“Thanks to the proper management of the campaign by the prime minister, Israel is in a deep security zone in Gaza, with dozens of outposts in enemy territory, including the Philadelphi Corridor,” Fuchs wrote.

He also pointed to the eventual return of the hostages and the changed security situation along the Gaza border as evidence supporting the government’s approach.

“The living hostages returned to their homes and the fallen were brought to Jewish burial,” Fuchs said, adding that the Gaza border communities — now referred to as the Tekuma region — have returned to working their fields, “with IDF outposts behind the fence instead of Hamas tunnels.”

The competing accounts reflect one of the most bitter debates to emerge from the war: whether Israel could have brought the hostages home sooner by accepting an earlier agreement, or whether doing so would have required ending the campaign on terms that left Hamas in power and Israel without the ability to resume military operations.

{Matzav.com}