Gallant urges security cabinet to reverse decision to keep IDF on Philadelphi Corridor, says hostages must be brought home

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calls for the security cabinet to convene and walk back its recent decision that an Israeli military presence along the Philadelphi Corridor, the Gaza-Egypt border, must be maintained as part of any potential ceasefire and hostage release deal.

“The security cabinet must convene immediately and reverse the decision made on Thursday,” Gallant says on X.

“It is too late for the hostages who were murdered in cold blood. The hostages who remain in Hamas captivity must be returned home,” he says.

In a Thursday night security cabinet meeting, eight ministers voted in favor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position, while only Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voted against it, representing the security apparatus’s position.

Netanyahu presented the continued IDF deployment in the Philadelphi Corridor as a new demand in the hostage negotiations last month, slowing the talks, which had picked up momentum after Hamas agreed to cave on its main demand for Israel to agree upfront to a permanent ceasefire.

Jacob Magid contributed to this post.