Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu killed a ceasefire deal in July that would have seen the release of three of the six captives whose bodies were recovered by the Israeli military last week, a new report reveals as experts and people familiar with the negotiations are saying Netanyahu has been purposely sabotaging ceasefire negotiations for months.
According to Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel and Hamas negotiators were close to reaching a deal in July when, at the last minute, Netanyahu introduced a number of demands that would be non-starters for other parties to the negotiations. The demands included Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor — a strip of Palestinian land encompassing the entirety of Gaza’s border with Egypt. This would effectively give Israel control over the entirety of the Gaza border.
This set of proposals was called the “Netanyahu Outline,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported, as translated by CNN.
The demand that the Israeli military permanently occupy the Philadelphi corridor in particular changed the very nature of the deal, which, according to the paper, was supposed to include a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
“The hostages died because [Netanyahu] insisted” on his demands, an Israeli familiar with the negotiations told CNN. “The moment he insisted to stay in Rafah, to stay in the Philadelphi corridor, it was very clear that it was an obstacle.”
Netanyahu does not carry sole responsibility for the continuation of the genocide; even some of Netanyahu’s biggest critics within Israel are still vehemently in favor of Israel’s slaughter. The U.S., meanwhile, has been participating in the ceasefire negotiations, but is still supplying all of the weaponry and diplomatic support that Israel needs to continue its extermination campaign.
But a growing chorus of experts and inside sources say that Netanyahu is deliberately sidelining the lives of hostages being held in Gaza in order to continue Israel’s genocide — as he continues to use the hostages as an excuse to kill civilians en masse.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has honed in on the Philadelphi corridor in negotiations, and on Monday hosted a press conference specifically highlighting occupation of the corridor as a sticking point for Israel. Hamas and Egypt are staunchly opposed to the proposal.
Israeli government insiders say that Netanyahu is only using the corridor as a tool to achieve his real goal: delaying and killing ceasefire deals.
“Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that by using the Philadelphi corridor, he could also draw the sane right to his side, and win some points with this group,” a source in Netanyahu’s coalition told Haaretz.
“The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source said.
That Netanyahu is opposed to striking any ceasefire deal has long been clear to Palestinians and others skeptical of the U.S. officials’ motivations for participating in negotiations. For months, Hamas negotiators have sought to ensure that any deal would actually result in a ceasefire, but Israeli negotiators have been insistent that Israeli forces be allowed to continue their assault as long as they see fit.
Increasingly, however, Israeli sources have been pinning blame on Netanyahu in particular for his sabotage of the talks, saying that he is thinking mostly of his own political standing.
Former Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin also singled out Netanyahu — while acknowledging that the U.S. plays a major role in prolonging the genocide — in an interview with Democracy Now! this week.
“It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war, as one of his top negotiators told me on Saturday,” said Baskin. “[The Philadelphi corridor] is a made-up issue by Netanyahu to create a new — I don’t know what we want to call it — a new excuse for Israel to remain in Gaza.”
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