Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insisting that Israel permanently control the entirety of Gaza’s border.
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.
