Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on retaining control over the corridor.
Jerusalem:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel will only agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza if it offers guarantees that the border area between southern Gaza and Egypt can never be used as a lifeline for the Islamist movement Hamas.
“Until that happens, we are there,” he said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu reiterated his firm rejection of a withdrawal from the so-called Philadelphia corridor in the first phase of a deal, which is expected to last 42 days, saying international pressure would make it effectively impossible to return.
To agree to a permanent ceasefire after that time, Israel would need guarantees that whoever was in charge of Gaza after the war would be able to prevent the corridor from being used as a route for smuggling weapons and goods for Hamas.
“Somebody has to be there,” he said. “Bring me somebody who can actually show me — not on paper, not in words, not on a slide — but day after day, week after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent a repeat of what happened there before,” he said, referring to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“We are open to discussions, but I don't think that will happen at this point.”
The Philadelphia corridor, along the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, is one of the biggest obstacles to an agreement to stop the fighting in Gaza and bring home Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu has insisted on retaining control of the corridor, where Israeli forces have discovered dozens of tunnels that officials say were used to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition.
The prime minister has been criticized by many in Israel for his inaction on the issue, including many within his own security service, who believe that Israeli forces can carry out targeted interventions to prevent smuggling if necessary.
The families of many hostages, including some of the six bodies pulled from a tunnel in southern Gaza on Sunday, accuse him of sacrificing their loved ones by insisting that troops remain in the corridor.
But he said maintaining pressure on Hamas was the best way to return the 101 hostages still in Gaza.
“You have to squeeze them, you have to put pressure on them to release the remaining hostages. So if you want to release the hostages, you have to control the Philadelphia corridor,” he said.
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