From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 23, 2024
In call with Biden, Netanyahu agreed to pull IDF troops back from one position on Egypt-Gaza border — report
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
In his phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden asked the premier to pull Israeli forces back from a 1-2 kilometer section of the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border, Axios reports. The section is adjacent to the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp near the coast, where many Gazan refugees have taken shelter.
Citing three Israeli officials, Axios says that Netanyahu agreed to pull back troops from one position in order to advance a deal. One official says that in response, Biden backed Netanyahu’s demand that IDF troops continue to hold the rest of the border in the first stage of a deal.
Once Biden accepted Israel’s position, says one of the officials, Cairo had no choice but to agree to deliver to Hamas maps with the proposed IDF deployment. The official adds that it is unlikely that Hamas will agree.
Meanwhile, one of the prime minister’s advisors tells Axios that Netanyahu agreed only to move one IDF position on the Philadelphi Route by several hundred meters and that it would not affect Israel’s operational control of the border.
