Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his insistence that the Israeli military permanently occupy Gaza’s border with Egypt, further obstructing ceasefire negotiations as protests for a hostage release deal erupt in Israel.
On Monday, Netanyahu hosted a long press conference in which he pledged not to “surrender to pressure” that he strike a ceasefire deal. He said Israel will not accept a deal that does not include Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor — a strip of land that runs along the only section of Gaza’s outer boundary not bordered by Israel or the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of thousands in Israel protested and went on strike over the weekend, calling on the government to secure a deal to release the captives held in Gaza after Israel retrieved six hostages’ bodies from the besieged enclave.
But Netanyahu was defiant. In his press conference, Netanyahu claimed without evidence that the Gaza-Egypt border is the “oxygen of Hamas,” giving Hamas forces a pathway to smuggle materials, a claim that Hamas and Egyptian officials have said is untrue.
He also claimed that Israel is ready for the first parts of the U.S.’s ceasefire proposal, which would see the release of some hostages and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, but that he refuses to carry out a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal from Gaza.
Netanyahu’s insistence on control over the corridor is one of the key elements currently preventing negotiators from securing a ceasefire deal.
This proposal is a non-starter for all other parties to the ceasefire talks. Egypt has said that an Israeli military presence in the corridor tramples over decades-old peace accords.
Others are opposed because it would ensure that Israel would have permanent control over the entirety of Gaza’s border, exercising even more power over Palestinians’ movement. Experts have warned that a permanent occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor and another corridor that Israel has created to bisect Gaza would give Israel massive leeway to deepen its occupation of the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has already exercised total control over Gaza’s border and, thus, border crossings for months amid the genocide, and has used this power to severely restrict materials entering Gaza to the point of manufacturing epidemics and famine. The humanitarian crisis escalated after Israel took control over the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border in May, after which aid deliveries were dramatically reduced.
Tension is growing within Israel’s government over Netanyahu’s seeming refusal to strike a deal. Israel media reported over the weekend that Netanyahu is sidelining a hostage release in order to prioritize control of the Philadelphi Corridor — as Israeli and U.S. officials use the hostages as a reason to continue Israel’s genocide.
In a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday, Netanyahu reportedly got into a heated argument with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant due to the former’s obstruction of a ceasefire deal. Netanyahu had reportedly presented the cabinet with maps dictating Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of the ceasefire, asking the cabinet to vote to approve the maps.
Gallant said that he was presenting the maps for the purpose of obstructing a deal, and said that Netanyahu has even gone so far as to draw different maps than Israeli ceasefire negotiators had drawn in order to do so.
“The significance of [the corridor occupation] is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released,” Gallant said, according to leaked accounts of the meeting.
Netanyahu’s stance is the latest show that he and his government are opposed to a ceasefire and are seeking instead to continue their ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza.
The Israeli leader’s recent actions have spurred President Joe Biden — who has repeatedly expressed nearly unconditional support for Israel’s genocide — to acknowledge that Netanyahu is acting as a roadblock to a ceasefire deal.
U.S. officials are still insistent that they are close to a deal, a claim that is not backed by evidence. But, when a reporter asked Biden on Monday whether or not Netanyahu is working hard enough to secure a deal, Biden said: “No.”
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