Israel could agree to leave the Philadelphi Corridor within the parameters of a permanent ceasefire such as would be discussed in Phase Two of the hostage deal, but not in Phase One, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the foreign media in a special press briefing in Jerusalem Wednesday night.
“We also agreed to begin discussions about a permanent ceasefire,” he said as he referenced a conversation that would take place during Phase One of the three-phase deal US President Joe Biden unveiled on May 31.
“The conditions that we shall have for a permanent ceasefire must include a situation where the Philadelphi Corridor cannot be perforated,” Netanyahu stated.
It’s unlikely, he said, that a realistic security plan exists that would prevent the smuggling of weapons under that critical buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza.
“Bring me anyone who will actually show us, not on paper, not in words, not in a slide, but on the ground, day after day after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent the recurrence of” weapons smuggling, he stated.If such a plan exists, he said, “we’re open to considering it. But I don’t see that happening… and until that happens, we’re there,” with the IDF protecting the Philadelphi Corridor.
Certainly, he noted, Israel has no intention of leaving the Philadelphi Corridor during Phase One of the deal, which would last for six weeks.
He made his case to the foreign media repeating many arguments he had presented on Tuesday when he gave a briefing to the Israeli media in Hebrew.
Netanyahu defends holding Philadelphi Corridor
Netanyahu relied on maps of the region and of Gaza, as well as photographs of the tunnels Hamas had built under the Philadelphi Corridor by which to smuggle arms from Egypt to Gaza. He also put a copy on the screen of a page of Hamas instructions in Arabic on how to carry out a propaganda campaign against Israel, including blaming Netanyahu for the absence of a deal.
He noted that the discussion going on now, referred to Phase One of the three-part deal. Hamas has insisted that Israel must withdraw from that Corridor prior to the start of Phase One.
The May 31 framework agreement that both Israeli and Hamas backed, did not mention the Philadelphi, but it did require the IDF to leave populated areas of Gaza in Phase One. It’s a step that Israel has agreed to.The Philadelphi Corridor is not considered a populated area, but it does intersect with some populated areas. The issue of the Philadelphi Corridor, which the IDF seized only in May, came up in the negotiations around the details of how to implement the deal, which would see some 18-32 hostages returned in Phase One and the remainder of the live hostages brought back in Phase Two.
Netanyahu told the foreign media that if Israel were to leave prior to the start of Phase One, international pressure would prevent it from returning.
“When we want to come back [to Philadelphi] we’ll pay an exorbitant price in many fields,” including the loss of soldiers’ lives in retaking the Corridor, Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem, speaking to them in English.
“We’re in now, [if] we leave we won’t [be able to] come back. You know it. Everybody here knows it. Everybody in here knows what pressure will be bought on us so that we don’t come back, what price we’ll have to pay if we do want to come back, it’s just not going to happen,” Netanyahu stated.
He rejected accusations that he has stood firm on Philadelphi for political reasons, fearing a deal would cause him to lose coalition partners and force his government to collapse.
Netanyahu stressed that he long believed the Philadelphi Corridor was a significant strategic asset and had opposed the IDF pullout from that buffer zone during the Disengagement from the Gaza Strip (2005).
Vows to prevent future attacks
He spoke with reporters in the aftermath of the Hamas execution last weekend of six of the hostages, four of whom had likely been slated for release in Phase One of the deal.
CNN said it had spoken to released hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith is still held in Gaza.
“She told me that she believes that you are sentencing her husband Keith to die by prioritizing the Philadelphia Corridor over [all]. She has this question for you, is Keith going to come home alive or dead?”
Netanyahu, who apologized at the press conference as well as in his Hebrew briefing on Tuesday for failing to return the six captives, said, “I’ll do everything to make sure that Keith and all the other hostages come back.”
He stressed, however, that “if we relieve the pressure [on Hamas], if we get out of the Philadelphi Corridor, we’re not going to get the hostages back,” he said.
It set in motion the worst-case scenario in which the hostages would not return and Hamas could rearm and execute another October 7-style attack, Netanyahu said.
It was his responsibility, Netanyahu said, to ensure that this would not happen.
“I can understand the torment of family… They’re undergoing an agony that it’s hard to fathom, and I understand that.
But the responsibility of leaders is not merely to share the sentiment, the emotion, but also to exercise judgment, the correct judgment, to make sure that these horrors do not happen again. I believe that our strategy is the best way to achieve both goals, both freeing the hostages and ensuring that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again,” he said.
The pressure to make the deal, he said, should be directed at Hamas, not at Israel.
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