From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Far-right minister says party will topple government if IDF withdraws from Gaza security corridors
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock threatens to bring down the government if the IDF withdraws from two important security corridors in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking during a visit to the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza border, the far-right minister says that her Religious Zionism party is “pressuring within the government, in the strongest way a party can pressure.”
“We explicitly said that if the IDF leaves the Netzarim Corridor and the Philadelphi Corridor… we will not be in the government, we are dismantling the government,” she says.
On Friday, Netanyahu’s office rejected a Reuters report that Israel is considering the option of withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border as part of a potential ceasefire deal, calling it “complete fake news.”
In recent remarks, the prime minister laid down what he said were nonnegotiable terms for a hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas, one of which concerns maintaining Israeli control of the the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Egypt-Gaza border. He has also seemed to indicate that the IDF will maintain control of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, which currently splits the Strip in two and prevents the return of gunmen to the northern part.
However, the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors are not specified as locations where Israeli troops will be allowed to remain, according to the text of the proposed deal recently published in full by The Times of Israel.
In fact, the document calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip including Gaza valley (Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout)…”
