Matthew Miller admits Netanyahu, not Hamas, sabotaged Gaza truce deals

Matthew Miller. (Photo/AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately obstructed efforts to secure ceasefire and release of captives from Gaza in agreements with Hamas, a former US official has told Israel's Channel 13, in a bombshell interview.

Matthew Miller, a former State Department spokesperson under Secretary of State Antony Blinken, stressed that Washington debated publicly accusing Netanyahu of being "completely intransigent" but refrained, fearing Hamas would exploit US–Israel divisions.

"We wanted to speak very toughly to the government of Israel behind closed doors, but ultimately not do anything that would make it harder to get to a deal," Miller said.

Miller cited an April 2024 instance where US officials urged Hamas to accept a six-week truce, potentially delaying Israel's Rafah invasion.

At the same time, Netanyahu declared Israel would enter Rafah "whether there was a ceasefire or not."

Miller stated the comment undermined the leverage mediators required.

"You can imagine how much harder that made it to get a deal over the line… [as it removed] the chief motivation [for Hamas] to agree to a deal."

'We were so close to getting a deal'

In May, then US President Joe Biden revealed details of a tentative deal hours after Netanyahu signed off, hoping to "box the prime minister in" and prevent backtracking.

Israeli officials then leaked claims suggesting Biden had misrepresented Netanyahu’s position, stalling momentum.

By July, Hamas had responded positively to US proposals.

But Netanyahu delayed nearly a month before demanding Israeli military remain in the Philadelphi Corridor (Saladin Axis) on Gaza's border with Egypt.

US officials described the move as the most damaging shift, collapsing near-final talks.

"It is consistent with the pattern we saw for many months. They [Israelis] were always looking for ways to add conditions or make the terms more difficult," Miller said.

"That maybe was the most frustrating of all, because we were so close to getting a deal that could have certainly brought hostages home and maybe ended the war once and for all," Miller added.

Channel 13 also reported that in late 2024 Netanyahu shelved a breakthrough Shin Bet proposal to stall until Donald Trump returned to the White House.

'Fighting for decades'

Miller recalled Blinken warning Israel's war cabinet early in the war that without a post-war plan, the country risked endless insurgency in Gaza, instability in the occupied West Bank, and loss of Arab normalisation.

Netanyahu reportedly replied: "You’re right. 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."

Miller's revelations come as Gaza grapples with UN UN-declared famine, with over half a million people starving.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has said Israel's blockade and obstruction of aid amount to "starvation as a method of warfare," potentially a war crime.

Netanyahu has long blamed Hamas for failed hostage negotiations.

But the Channel 13 report shows US officials privately saw the opposite — that Israel's leader repeatedly introduced new conditions and derailed progress even as captives' lives hung in the balance.

Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza since October 2023. Palestinians have recorded killings of more than 62,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Some 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under rubble of annihilated homes, according to Palestine's official WAFA news agency.

Experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Washington allocates $3.8 billion in annual military funding to its long-standing ally Israel.

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Source: TRT