Explaining why he took 7 months to enter Philadelphi, PM says other military goals were also critical

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressed again during his English-language press conference on the Philadelphi Corridor why he waited seven months to enter the Egypt-Gaza border stretch if it is as existentially important as he presents it today.

He says it was also critical to destroy Hamas, which it is in the midst of doing via a strategy that began with focusing on northern Gaza.

Netanyahu says the strategy that the political and military echelons approved, which had the IDF start in northern Gaza before making its way down, has led the IDF to killing 20,000 Hamas operatives and its senior commanders and to taking over Gaza City and the Shifa Hospital, which the terror group had used as a central command center.

He says his plan all along was to still enter Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor.

“It took a while to do, but it was a progression of military advancement that produced the result. We’re there now,” the premier declares.

“[IF] we leave, we won’t come back. You know it. Everybody here knows it,” he claims, explaining his stance against withdrawing from the corridor. “Everybody in here knows what pressure will be brought on us so that we don’t come back.”