Netanyahu: ‘A deal to withdraw from Philadelphi Corridor will kill us’

Israeli Prime Minister holds English language press conference on the war and hostage talks in light of the execution of the 6 hostages, stresses importance of Israel retaining control of Philadelphi Corridor.

By: Israel National News, Israel National News, Sep 4, 2024:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an English-language press conference Wednesday evening on the war against Hamas in which he stressed the need for Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor.

“Israel is experiencing days of horror, sorrow, and rage,” Netanyahu began. “A week ago, we experienced such horror.”

“Yesterday I visited in Ashkelon the family of one of the hostages murdered in cold blood. A day earlier, I spoke to several of the families of these murdered hostages. It tears your heart out. I said to them that I’m sorry. I apologized that we didn’t get them out. We worked so hard to get them. We were close, but we didn’t. And they changed their torment from families worried about their loved ones to families grieving for their fallen beloved,” he said.

“We also lost brave policemen and brave soldiers who are fighting in the Gaza front, and I embrace their families as well,” Netanyahu said.

He elaborated on the atrocities Hamas committed. “On October 7th, we experienced the worst savagery in this century. On October 7th, we experienced the worst savagery meted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. These savages massacred our people, 1,200 civilians. They beheaded our men. They raped our women and then murdered them. They burned babies alive. They took 255 of our people hostages to our underground dungeons. That’s a horror that the world saw and responded to initially.”

“We were given a reminder, a terrible reminder, last week when these savages murdered six of our hostages in cold blood. They riddled them with bullets, then they shot each of them in the head, some of them several times. These are the savages, these are the terrorists that Iran implanted next to our border, as elsewhere, and we’re committed to defeating them, to extirpating this evil from our midst,” he said.

Netanyahu presented a map of the Middle East to demonstrate how small a country Israel is, especially compared to the Arab world. “It goes from the [Jordan] river to the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. So when Hamas is talking about ‘liberating Palestine from the River to the Sea,’ basically what they’re saying is ‘destroy Israel.’”

He described how after the 2005 Disengagement Hamas was able to smuggle in vast quantities of weapons using tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt. “That Philadelphi Corridor became completely porous. The other borders, controlled by us. But once this was perforated … once we left our side of the Philadelphi Corridor, rockets went in, missiles went in, drones went in, ammo went in, weapons manufacturing equipment came in, tunnel drilling equipment came in.”

“Once we got out, once we left the Philadelphi Corridor, Iran could carry out its plan to turn Gaza into a base, a terrorist enclave, that would endanger not only the communities around it, but would endanger Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, the entire country of Israel. It became a huge terrorist base because we left that corridor,” he said.

“You have to understand the centrality of the Philadelphi Corridor to the arming of Gaza, to the arming of Hamas, and this all led to the October 7th massacre, which Hamas has proudly vowed to do again and again and again.

“We vowed that they won’t be able to do it, so we set, as far as Gaza is concerned, three war goals. The first war goal was to destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. The second was to free our hostages. And the third was to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel. And all three of those goals go through Israel’s control of the Philadelphi Corridor,” he said.

“It’s obvious why. You want to destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, you can’t let Hamas rearm. It’s obvious. So you have to control the corridor,” Netanyahu stated, adding that this is necessary to protect the residents of Gaza as well as the residents of Israel.

“Gaza cannot have a future if Gaza remains porous and you can enable the rearmament of terrorists through the Philadelphi Corridor,” he said.

Netanyahu stated that the retention of control of the Philadelphi Corridor was also necessary to secure the release of the remaining hostages. “If you leave this corridor, you can’t prevent Hamas from not only smuggling weapons in, you can’t prevent them from smuggling hostages out. It’s walking distance. It’s nothing.”

He said that if this happened the hostages would “disappear in the Sinai, and then they end up in Iran or in Yemen. They’re gone forever.”

Netanyahu added that military pressure is necessary to get Hamas to release the hostages. “So if you want to release the hostages, you’ve got to control the Philadelphi Corridor.”

“It’s clear Gaza must be demilitarized. And it can only be demilitarized if the Philadelphi Corridor remains under firm control and is not a supply line for armaments and for terror equipment. I think that’s clear to all Israelis,” he said.

Netanyahu addressed calls for a temporary withdrawal from the corridor for 42 days as part of hostage deal with the understanding that Israel could return to the corridor if necessary.

“You leave then you come back. That’s what they tell us. Ok. We’ll have complete international legitimacy to come back. Sorry, we’ve gone down that route. We went down that route when we left Lebanon, and people said, ‘You can leave Lebanon and you can come back. The first time they fire a rocket you can come back. The world will support you,’ It didn’t,” he noted.

“They said the same thing when we left Gaza,” he further noted. “‘You can leave, and the first rocket [you can go back].’ I remember Prime Minister Sharon said this to me. ‘First rocket, aboveground or belowground. It’s been 20 years, we haven’t gone back in. Because you all know and understand that the international community, including friendly countries under enormous domestic pressure because of the propaganda that’s leveled against Israel and against them, there’ll be enormous international pressure not to come back.”

“And so when we want to come back and resume, we’ll pay an exorbitant price in many fields, including in the lives of our men. To come back? It’s not just a military question. It’s a military-political-strategic question. And we make that decision, we’re not gonna leave. 42 days, we’re there,” Netanyahu declared.

Turning to the issue of the negotiations for a hostage deal, he noted that there have been growing voices saying that staying at the corridor would kill the deal. “I say, such a deal will kill us. And there won’t be a deal that way.”

Netanyahu stated that he is “willing to make a deal. I made a deal already, one that brought back 150 hostages, 117 alive. And I’m committed to return the remaining 101. I’ll do everything I can to get them there. But leaving Philadelphi does not advance the release of the hostages, because the deal cannot be advanced. They’ll give you a minor part, if they give anything, and keep the rest.”