Netanyahu Defies Criticism: Israel Must Control Gaza Border Corridor

Benjamin Netanyahu remains steadfast in his stance on the Philadelphi corridor, despite mounting pressure from protests and international criticism.

Benjamin Netanyahu has defied both domestic protests and international criticism, including from US President Joe Biden, by insisting that Israel must maintain control over the strategic Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egyptian border. This stance has emerged as a significant obstacle to achieving a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict.

In a combative press conference, the Israeli prime minister presented control of the Philadelphi corridor as a primary war aim. "Israel will not accept the massacre of six hostages; Hamas will pay a heavy price," Netanyahu declared, standing before a large map of the Gaza Strip adorned with clip art of bombs and missiles. "Iran’s axis of evil needs the Philadelphi corridors … Israel must control it."

Netanyahu's remarks came just hours after President Biden met with his top advisers on the Gaza conflict and expressed his belief that Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a ceasefire deal with Hamas. The Israeli prime minister's statements also followed weekend protests and a general strike on Monday, sparked by the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against the government's handling of the war and efforts to release dozens of hostages who remain in captivity.

Hamas's armed wing issued a stark warning on Monday, stating that hostages would return to Israel "inside coffins" if military pressure continued. They also indicated that "new instructions" had been given to the militants guarding the captives if Israeli troops approached.

Speaking to reporters, Biden revealed that his administration was "very close" to proposing a "final" hostage deal to both sides, a move that has assumed new urgency since the discovery of the bodies, including that of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The Washington Post had previously reported that the Biden administration was preparing a "take it or leave it" deal, which, if it failed, could mark the end of US-led efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu has remained defiant over Israeli claims to strategic points in Gaza, despite significant internal and international pressure to secure at least a temporary ceasefire in the 11-month-old war. During his remarks on Monday, the Israeli prime minister apologized to the families of the six hostages found dead in Gaza over the weekend but quickly pivoted to defend his government’s control over the Philadelphi corridor, which has been seen as a non-starter for a potential ceasefire deal with Hamas.

"In the war against the axis of evil, in this specific war against Hamas and also in the north, we have set four goals: defeat Hamas; return our hostages; ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat; and to return residents to the south," Netanyahu stated. "Three of these goals pass through the Philadelphi route, Hamas’s oxygen pipe."

The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, derided Netanyahu’s presentation as "political spin" with "no relation to reality." "Not one professional buys this spin. Not the security personnel, not the international system, not the fighters who are actually in Gaza and know the reality there," Lapid said, according to the Times of Israel.

The Philadelphi corridor has only emerged as an Israeli government talking point in recent weeks and was not part of the plan that Biden presented in May, which the Israeli government said at the time it accepted.

The Hostage Families Forum vowed that their protests would continue, but the far-right members of Netanyahu’s government coalition declared victory after a labor court ruling that the strike had to end at 2:30 pm local time (12:30 pm BST).

Even before the court ruling, the strike, called by the Histadrut trade union federation, was not seen as a significant threat to the government. It had only been due to last a day, and only a few local authorities took part. Banks and many private businesses closed or gave their employees the option of taking the day off, but it was not the prolonged stoppage that activists hoped would have an impact on the economy and force the coalition into a ceasefire-for-hostage deal with Hamas.

Public anger erupted after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found the hostages’ bodies in a tunnel deep under the Palestinian city of Rafah over the weekend. According to Israel’s health ministry, they had been shot at close range about two days before their remains were discovered. Some of them – including Goldberg-Polin – would have been in the first batch of hostages to be released under the proposed ceasefire deal.

Goldberg-Polin’s funeral was held in Jerusalem on Monday. Addressing the family at the ceremony, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, apologized for his death on behalf of the state. "We are sorry we failed to protect you in the terrible failure of 7 October," Herzog said. "We are sorry we failed to bring you home safely. We are sorry that the country you immigrated to at the age of seven, wrapped in the Israeli flag, failed to keep you."

About 250 hostages were seized by Hamas in its 7 October surprise attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. In the Gaza war that followed, Israeli forces have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, the large majority of them civilians.

Other countries have slightly increased pressure on Israel since the botched rescue of the hostages. The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, on Monday announced the suspension of 30 of 350 arms export licenses to Israel. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said he was "deeply disheartened" by the decision at a time when "we fight a war on seven different fronts."

The extreme right members of Netanyahu’s coalition welcomed the decision of the Bat Yam labor court to order Monday’s strike to end early. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the strike had been "political and illegal," serving the interests of Hamas.

The Hostage Families Forum said that protests would still continue after the strike, in the interests of the 101 hostages still unaccounted for in Gaza, of whom Israeli intelligence believes about a third are already dead.

The forum said the surviving hostages had been "abandoned" on Thursday last week, when Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to stand behind the prime minister’s negotiating position insisting on Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor. Gallant was the only cabinet member to vote against the stance and has called for the decision to be reversed.

About 100,000 protesters took part in demonstrations in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, temporarily blocking the north-south motorway that runs through the city. On Monday, there were sporadic protests blocking key road junctions around the country and another big demonstration was called for Monday night.

Among even the most determined demonstrators, however, was an acceptance that they did not yet have the strength to threaten Netanyahu’s hold on power and force him to change course.

"I’m not sure the strike was as powerful as people expected," said Debbie Mason, a social worker for the Eshkol regional council, an area of southern Israel abutting Gaza, where many of the victims of the 7 October Hamas attack lived.

"Unfortunately, there are too many things that are going to obstruct a deal. Whether it’s on our side, whether it’s on Hamas’s side, it just doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s interest that something should happen," Mason said.

She was speaking in "Hostages Square," a plaza between the national library and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, where hostage families and their supporters gather every day.

Rayah Karmin, a vitamin supplement salesperson from Mabu’im, a village near Netivot near the Gaza frontier, agreed that a one-day strike would change little.

"Only a longer strike will make the people in government understand that the economy of Israel is going to go down," Karmin said.

She pointed out that all the protests faced an immovable political reality: that if a ceasefire were agreed, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich would lead a far-right walk-out from the cabinet and the coalition would fall, removing Netanyahu’s immunity against corruption charges he faces in Israeli courts.

"Smotrich and Ben-Gvir will leave Netanyahu, and then he will be without a coalition, and he will have to go home," Karmin said. "And he knows that next time he won’t be elected, so he wants to stay as long as he can."