Netanyahu tells ministers he prioritizes Philadelphi over hostages, horrifying Gallant
In shouting match as cabinet backs PM’s demand to keep IDF on Gaza-Egypt border, Netanyahu says only firm stance will enable deal; Gallant tells colleagues they’re condemning hostages to die
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday that he was prioritizing his stance of maintaining Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor over saving the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
The stance was shared during a heated security cabinet meeting Thursday night during which the premier had the top ministerial body vote to approve a series of maps drawn up by the IDF, which show how Israel aims to keep its troops deployed in the nine-mile narrow stretch known as the Philadelphi Corridor during the first, six-week phase of the hostage-ceasefire being negotiated.
It was the latest evidence of the divide between Netanyahu and the security establishment. Gallant and the security chiefs have repeatedly pushed Netanyahu for more compromise in the negotiations, particularly regarding the Philadelphi Corridor, fearing that the premier’s hardline positions are scuttling a deal.
According to a transcript from the meeting leaked to Channel 12 on Friday, the ministers had not been briefed ahead of time that they would be holding a vote on the IDF maps and Gallant demanded to know why it was necessary.
“The significance of this is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released,” Gallant told the ministers.
Netanyahu replied: “This is the decision.”
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer then pushed to proceed with a vote on the maps that the IDF presented last week to mediators in Cairo, but Gallant claimed that Netanyahu had imposed his position on the security establishment and that the maps the IDF presented went against its stance.
“I imposed? I imposed?” Netanyahu responded.
“Of course you did. They had their own plan. You have been running the negotiations by yourself ever since the war cabinet disbanded (in June). We learn of decisions only after the fact. The negotiators sketched the maps as you wanted, but they had a different position,” Gallant said.
Netanyahu then banged his hands on the table, demanding an immediate vote on his Philadelphi maps.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi chimed in to raise his own concerns about the prime minister’s strategy: “The IDF will know how to enter and return to the Philadelphi Corridor at the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire. There are enough constraints in the talks, you don’t need to add another.”
“There is no logic to this vote right now. In any case, the negotiations are currently focused on (other issues) and not the Philadelphi Corridor,” added Mossad spy agency director David Barnea, who has led the Israeli negotiating team.
Gallant snipes at Netanyahu, pleads with ministers
Gallant then told the ministers that their vote means that if Israel faces “two possibilities — either keeping the IDF deployed on the Philadelphi Corridor or bringing home the hostages — you are deciding to stay on the Philadelphi Corridor. Does this seem logical to you?” Gallant asked. “There are living (hostages) there!” Gallant exclaimed.
Dermer responded, “The prime minister can do whatever he wants.”
Gallant replied, “The prime minister can indeed make all the decisions, and he can also decide to have all the hostages killed.”
At this point, other ministers in the room called out Gallant for speaking to the prime minister in such a manner.
Gallant then told Netanyahu he would eventually cave to Sinwar’s demands anyway.
Netanyahu shot back that he doesn’t cave to dictates from anyone.
Gallant again spoke bitterly to his ministerial colleagues, accusing them of abandoning the hostages by voting in favor of Netanyahu’s stance, adding he would vote against it. “You are making a decision that, if Hamas does not accept it, means you are abandoning the hostages,” he charged.
He again turned to the premier and asked: “If Sinwar presents you with the dilemma: Either you leave Philadelphi or you return the hostages, what do you do?”
Netanyahu responded that the imperative to keep the IDF at the corridor was of crucial importance to the state.
Gallant said that was all well and good if it was a decision taking in isolation. But, he asked, “What about when 30 lives are at stake? What do you do?”
The prime minister said: “I stay on the Philadelphi. Only resolute negotiations will force [Sinwar] to fold.”
The ministers then took a short break, and returned to approve the text sought by the prime minister.
Gallant went on to acknowledge that he had lost the argument this time, but he predicted that the ministers would come around to his position.
“Hopefully, it will happen sooner rather than later,” the defense minister said.
An unnamed cabinet minister told Ynet that unlike in previous arguments between the pair, nobody came to Gallant’s defense on Thursday night, believing he had gone too far in his criticism.
“This was the most intense argument I can recall between Netanyahu and Gallant,” one of the ministers said. “Netanyahu isolated Gallant completely. In situations such as these, a defense minister may as well lay down his keys.״
The eight-to-one vote, with one abstention, underlined Israel’s already declared stance on the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor, since the maps had already been submitted to Hamas and mediators Egypt, the US and Qatar.
Gallant’s was the vote against and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cast the vote’s lone abstention. A source close to Ben Gvir was cited by Hebrew media as explaining this was because the proposal included a gradual decrease in the number of soldiers along the Philadelphi corridor in the case of a deal, while he supports maintaining a full military presence at the corridor and in all of Gaza.
The maps have already been adopted by the US, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday night, apparently referencing the “bridging proposal” that the White House submitted earlier this month.
The Israel Hayom daily reported Friday that the decision’s content in practice calls for the IDF to gradually thin its presence along the corridor during the first six-week stage of a potential hostage-ceasefire deal, by the end of which only soldiers in watchtowers will be left along the Philadelphi Corridor.
A senior official told the daily that even as the IDF presence is diminished, Israel will maintain effective control of the corridor, adding that the gradual retreat will only begin once the military has destroyed all the cross-border tunnels in the area and placed sensors that can detect construction of new tunnels.
“In any case, approaching the perimeter will be forbidden,” the official told Israel Hayom. “There’s no need for an IDF division and a half to be on the ground all the time. There will be soldiers and Israeli movement across its whole width all the time, whether for operational needs or logistical needs. The Israeli control will be substantial and not only symbolic.”
Hostage families forum horrified by cabinet quotes
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum responded to the leaked quotes from the security cabinet meeting by demanding that Netanyahu publicly declare that he has given up on the lives of hostages in favor of continued IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor.
“The quotes from the cabinet meeting should cause every Israeli citizen to lose sleep,” the forum said in a statement. “Every citizen should know that if they are to be kidnapped from their bed in their pajamas on a Saturday morning, their prime minister will do everything to keep his seat, even at the cost of leaving them to die in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.”
Netanyahu has insisted that remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor is essential for Israel to prevent Hamas from resuming weapons smuggling across the border, and gradually rebuilding its strength. The specific demand to keep the IDF on the border route was not included in the Israeli proposal of May 27 that has served as the basis for recent negotiations.
The US has urged Israel to compromise on the issue, while also offering a bridging proposal, publicly accepted by Netanyahu, that allows for a limited number of soldiers to remain in the corridor, which both Hamas and mediator Egypt have to date opposed, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel earlier this week.
According to the officials, the bridging proposal over-catered to Israel’s demands.
The security establishment has pushed the government for more flexibility on the Philadelphi issue, fearing Netanyahu’s stance will potentially torpedo the deal, and will certainly further drag out the talks, risking the lives of the hostages. Security chiefs have argued that Israel would be able to return to the corridor if need be.
Channel 12 news reported Thursday that at the meeting in which the vote was eventually held, Gallant presented a document setting out the security establishment’s opinion that without a hostages-for-ceasefire deal, Israel faced “imminent deterioration into a multifront war.”
According to the senior Prime Minister’s Office official who reported on the vote, Netanyahu told ministers during the meeting that Hamas was able to carry out its October 7 onslaught because Israel didn’t have control over the Philadelphi Corridor.
Netanyahu stressed that by maintaining control over the corridor, Israel would be able to prevent another attack of that nature from unfolding since Hamas wouldn’t be able to re-arm.
He also argued that his stance would make a hostage deal more likely because Hamas will see that it has no other choice but to compromise on this issue, just as it did when it agreed to forgo its demand for a permanent end to the war as a precondition for a deal.
In a proposal Hamas submitted earlier this month, the terror group agreed to only have a six-week ceasefire, during which the sides would negotiate the terms of subsequent phases. While the offer envisions the mediators keeping Israel and Hamas at the table, it does appear to provide Israel with the ability to resume fighting if Hamas is deemed to be violating the terms of the deal and not negotiating in good faith.
