Hamas is attempting to pressure Israel to abandon its fundamental principles by warning that the Gaza hostage talks are close to collapse, Israeli sources said Saturday, after the security cabinet voted 8-1 to retain IDF forces in the Philadelphi Corridor in any agreement with the terror group.
They spoke up after the Lebanese-based website Al Mayadeen reported that the Gaza hostage and ceasefire talks “were near collapse.”
The report followed last week’s intense diplomatic push by the United States, which included a summit in Cairo and lower-level talks in Doha, to finalize a deal. Qatar and Egypt, with the help of the US, have been the main mediators in the negotiations.
Among the sticking points have been Hamas’s demand that Israel must withdraw from the critical buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza known as the Philadelphi Corridor and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that the army must remain there.
Israeli sources said that the coverage in the Arab media following the vote was similar to past situations where Israel had stood firm on its principled points, including the debate over a permanent Gaza ceasefire.
Reports like these are “intended to encourage Israeli officials to pressure the government to abandon fundamental positions important to Israel’s security,” the sources said.
“Hamas was and remains the obstacle to the deal,” they punctuated, adding that “Israel was willing to go a long way to achieve” this agreement “with the aim of returning all our hostages – the living and the deceased.”
The sources spoke as emotions ran high in the country in the aftermath of the cabinet vote and reports of a bitter exchange between Netanyahu and National Unity Party head Benny Gantz during the meeting.
Members of the opposition on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Saturday night called for that body to summon Netanyahu for an urgent debate on the security situation in Israel, including the hostage deal.
“Failure to fulfill the supreme moral obligation to return the 107 live and dead hostages from Hamas captivity comes contrary to the goals of the war and Israeli interests,” the parliamentarians said in their letter.
Weekly rallies
Thousands of Israelis continued to rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night calling for the government to make a deal.
Yael Adar said at the rally, “Israeli children will start the school year tomorrow unaware of their social and emotional future in a country where the Philadelphi Corridor is more important than its citizens.”
This is “a decision that was passed by the cabinet in complete opposition to the recommendation of the defense establishment headed by the defense minister,” she stressed.
At the cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was the only minister to vote against the decision to retain the IDF at the border.
Netanyahu has explained that keeping the IDF stationed there would prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza through tunnels it dug underneath it as it has in the past. He has believed that if Israel stands firm on this point, Hamas will cave, while others fear it could cause Israel to lose the deal.
Cabinet ministers, according to sources close to the discussion, backed Netanyahu’s strategy with respect to the hostage talks. The only exception aside from Gallant who opposed the vote was National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who abstained.
Cabinet ministers said that standing firm on the Philadelphi Corridor issue brings the possibility of a deal closer. According to sources, the cabinet ministers said it was important to make it clear to Hamas that it would have to compromise on this point, just as it compromised on its demand to end the war.
In so doing, the ministers pointed to the complex three-phase agreement US Joe Biden unveiled on May 31, which focused on starting the first phase of the hostage deal without resolving issues of substantive disagreement such as the Hamas demand for an Israeli pledge for a permanent ceasefire and a full IDF withdrawal.
Instead, there would be a temporary lull to the war during the first phase that would include the release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists from Israeli jails.
Israel has also agreed to pull the IDF in that period out of populated areas in Gaza, but it had not meant that to include the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors.
Israeli negotiators have provided the United States with an alternative proposal set out in maps, which was now also approved by the cabinet on Thursday night, according to sources.
“The maps were drawn by the IDF and adopted by the United States as part of the plan for the return of the hostages,” the sources maintained.
Netanyahu clarified during the discussion that the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7 was possible only because Israel did not control the Philadelphi Corridor.
“A huge amount of weapons came through the corridor that were then used by the terrorist organizations in Gaza,” the sources said.
Netanyahu stated that this situation could repeat itself and that Israel was determined to control that border, according to the sources.
The prime minister said that this time, Israel was determined to keep this border in its hands.
Security officials have said that Israel could afford to withdraw from the corridor temporarily to allow for a deal to take place and then manage the Philadelphi Corridor situation later. They have also said that alternative options were available.
According to sources, Netanyahu and ministers dismissed that claim. They recalled that security officials had said in 2005 that the IDF could safely leave Gaza. Security officials at the time had claimed that if rockets were launched against Israel in the aftermath of that withdrawal, then the IDF would know how to deal with it.
However, the army did not deal with the rocket threat, ministers stressed, adding that Hamas had launched rockets against Israel for close to two decades following the Disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Similarly, Netanyahu and the ministers pointed to other security estimates that they said failed, such as the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000 and allowing terrorists to return to the West Bank under the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
Cabinet ministers also pushed back at those who claimed that hostages were at risk of dying or being killed if a deal was not made quickly.
It was also stated at the cabinet, that, based on a professional estimate, most of the hostages who were killed or died in captivity, met their death in the first half a year after the October 7 attack and not in the last few months, sources stressed.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum accused Netanyahu of trying to thwart the deal with the cabinet vote.
“After almost a year of neglect, Netanyahu does not miss any opportunity to make sure that there will be no deal,” it said.
“There is not a day when Netanyahu does not act in a real way to endanger the return of all the hostages,” the forum added.
It recalled how the IDF had delayed any operation in southern Gaza, including at the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah border crossing, in the past.
“What will happen if we withdraw from the Corridor for a fixed period to allow for the deal to be finalized?* it asked.
“The IDF has approved the demolition of eighty percent of the Hamas tunnels in Rafah,” the forum explained.
Israel has also been offered a viable option for Philadelphi, it stated.
“The Americans and the Egyptians are giving guarantees that were not there before,” it said, such as the construction of an underground barrier.
The US and Egypt would also accept an IDF presence at Rafah as long as there is also a symbolic representation at that border from the Palestinian Authority, the forum added.
Netanyahu and his ministers are ready to abandon the captives, rather than accept this option, it charged.
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