That time lag bothers me as well. I thought the current protocol was not to try to negotiate but rather to storm the place right away. He milled people during that 3 hr gap, if I recall correctly.
See my post 27.
Look, the same thing happened in France yesterday. It took French SWAT teams 3 hours + negotiations with the scumbag until they too stormed the building.
Procedures must change so we can save more Innocent lives. The Israelis unfortunately have too much experience with terror but, in Israel if the security teams would have waited 3 hours, the Prime Minister, the Chief of Police and other high-ranking security folks would have had to resign...