Former US official says Israeli demands made Gaza deal 'impossible for another six months'

A former senior US official has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of delaying 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 allegations 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. 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. Read more: Former US official says Israeli demands made Gaza deal 'impossible for another six months' A Palestinian woman inspects a house damaged by an Israeli airstrike in Al-Zawayda, central Gaza, after evacuation warnings, 11 October 2026 (Eyad Baba/AFP)